Righteous indignation is not enough

By the end of the week we will be in the second month of Telkom`s new rate regime, and consumers will finally feel the effects they have heard predicted for a long time.

The government recently made it very clear that it has no interest in the court battle between Telkom and ICASA, despite pleas from the latter to intervene.

Phillip de Wet, News editor, ITWeb

Let`s hope it finally goads them into action.

There has been a fair amount of indignation at the gall of Telkom to push through what is nearly universally condemned as unfair rates. There is even a vocal minority that has said so in public forums. And that is where it has stopped.

There has been no protest outside the Telkom head office in Pretoria, no campaign to pressure government to intervene, no vows of support for the regulator. Worst of all, the increases have not even been used as an excuse to not pay Telkom at all, at least not yet.

After all, SA has a proud history of grassroots actions. We have a "culture of non-payment" we are told. Even now Northern Province property owners are being urged not to pay municipal taxes because of plans to change town names.

In contrast, Telkom has had things easy. There is not a single Web site dedicated to public outrage at the new rates, not any that ITWeb is aware of in any event. A solitary engineer constructed a spreadsheet to calculate the increases he would face and made it available online. Few know or care about it.

The government recently made it very clear that it has no interest in the court battle between Telkom and ICASA, despite pleas from the latter to intervene. Why should it? Telecommunications rates are rather inconsequential as an election issue when AIDS death rates are projected to stand at 16 000 a day within five years.

However, it would take very little to make it an issue government will have to contend with. A concerted letter-writing or e-mail campaign could drown Parliament in protest overnight. It is hard to ignore an issue when your comfy office is filled with outraged letters calling you names. And as controlling shareholder it would be relatively easy for government to settle the matter within days.

At the moment, it won`t and for very good reasons too. If it interferes now it will scare off the investors it has worked so hard to lure to the Telkom listing and complicate its own policy enormously.

These concerns are not immovable, they`re just very heavy. Enough shoulders pushing would topple them in no time at all. That is the point of a democracy, isn`t it?

Why does the sleeping giant not realise its potential? Maybe the people have been stirred once too often and need a break. Maybe the increases are really not that horrific and will simply reduce the number of lottery tickets purchased, although we will only know in 2003 how many people had their telephones cut off because they couldn`t pay.

Personally, I like to think the lethargy may simply be ignorance and will change as soon as those first bills are paid. At least, I hope so. If not, it bodes ill for the future. Unless ICASA wins its battle and manages to keep a tighter rein on prices, it will send a clear message to all four, and soon five, operators.

"Baaah," it will say. "Fleece us."