Uprooting the poison Ivy

It might sound like a cruel joke, but it seems possible the widely-criticised communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri could be ousted from her position.

While media reports last weekend suggested she may be removed from her post on the ANC's national executive committee, many within the ICT industry hope this will lead to her exit as communications minister.

In one of ITWeb's most broadly-read stories of the week, political analyst Daniel Silke cautions that her leaving the national executive committee will not necessarily lead to her removal from the ministerial position - although he does reason it will add pressure.

While the future of the affectionately known "Poison Ivy" remains uncertain, she faces a court meeting today with suspended Post Office CEO Khutso Mampeule.

He is attempting to force her to release a report on governance problems, following a forensic investigation at the Post Office.

On Friday last week, tech giant IBM announced it had secured a six-year, multimillion-rand services contract with South African Breweries (SAB) - the company's second high-value services deal in the space of two weeks.

As one of the London Stock Exchange's most successful firms, SAB could be described as one of SA's stellar exports (in a business sense), making this a lucrative contract renewal for IBM.

Telkom said this week it would invest R7 billion in its Internet Protocol TV plans, through its new Telkom Media division. The company is pursuing its plans with such vigour that I can only assume it knows full-well ICASA will award it a broadcast licence soon.

Nobody would like to see Cell C go under. Its presence in this oligopolistic market is important for competition's sake, if nothing else.

Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb

Government said this week it will not leave Sentech "out in the cold" when it comes to providing funding for the signal distributor.

This reassurance comes after the company last week expressed its frustration at waiting for National Treasury to allocate funding for its wireless broadband network project. It warned it could miss crucial and short-lived opportunities in the market without a speedy cash injection.

Department of Communications director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole says the investigation into Sentech's role opposite private sector companies in the commercial space has been completed, so theoretically there is little stopping the cheque from being written.

Uncertainty reigns over Cell C's financial health.

Many media reports over the past week or two have "broken" news that the cell operator is performing poorly, staff members are resigning, and major shareholders are reconsidering their investments. The company has also been the subject of some "takeover talk".

However, the official line from the operator is that it has a plan in place to double its revenue by 2010, and plans to become profitable in two years.

I'm sure nobody would like to see Cell C go under. Its presence in this oligopolistic market is important for competition's sake, if nothing else.

IT vendors believe organisations are not interested in investigating energy-efficient technologies. This comes despite the crippling power outages throughout the country towards the end of last year.

While Eskom warns it is running out of generation capacity, and the coming winter adds weight to the problem, most companies remain ambivalent to thoughts of reduced consumption processors and other equipment.

Using the most appropriate description I can muster, Nokia Siemens Networks officially launched in SA yesterday in a rather "wishy-washy" fashion.

The global joint venture between Siemens Networks and Nokia Business Networks got off to a troubled European beginning, marred by delays and corruption allegations.

It is not yet known how the company's revised global performance targets will affect SA. An analysis of the synergies between the merged companies hasn't been finished, said the new entity's sub-regional head, Jan Mrosik, at what appeared to be the non-event of the year.