The arivia guessing game

Following an announcement at the end of last week that utilities Eskom and Transnet would shed their shareholding in state IT group arivia.kom, speculation was rife on Monday about how much this stake would sell for.

Based on defence parastatal Denel's 23% stake in the company, which was sold for R130 million earlier this year, it is estimated arivia.kom is worth about R566 million.

Observers have commented that this would be an attractive price, and it would be surprising to see the entity being sold for so little. Either way, at least government seems to be moving ahead on its privatisation promises.

In a rare moment of introspection, SITA admitted its e-government plans have failed miserably.

Martin Czernowalow, news editor, ITWeb

Also at the start of this week, government said anyone is welcome to play a role in its new broadband provider, Infraco. While details of the type of co-operation envisaged are sketchy, government has said access to communications should be treated as a basic necessity.

Meanwhile, Telkom has welcomed the potential competition from Infraco, and said it was working hard to stay ahead.

The State IT Agency (SITA) GovTech conference kicked off in Sun City this week. The event saw an announcement by Fatima Habib, SITA's chief of shared services, that the agency would start an ICT academy to address the skills dearth in SA.

"We do not have requisite capacity in terms of skills in the ICT sector," she said, adding the academy could be up and running within 18 months.

As yet, no details regarding funding or business models are available.

In a rare moment of introspection, SITA admitted at GovTech this week that its e-government plans have failed miserably.

Chief of strategic services Jonas Bogoshi told delegates that the agency has not delivered on implementing an e-government strategy. "If we assume that e-government is about transforming and rethinking government, then we have not done a good job. We have to rethink how we approach e-government."

At least he's honest.

Yesterday, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) again expressed confidence that mobile number portability (MNP) would be introduced next Friday, 10 November.

As the country prepares to port, ICASA chairman Paris Mashile, speaking at the launch of an MNP roadshow to raise awareness, assured journalists that there would be no further delays.

In fact, Mashile is so sure MNP will happen on time, that he slammed detractors, saying they can be 100% assured that all is on track. This is another bold statement from the chairman, who some weeks back said he was prepared to be "nailed to the scaffold" if MNP had not been implemented by deadline.