If ever there was a time for the South African telecoms industry to pop a bottle of bubbly, it is this weekend. Yesterday was the deadline for the Minister of Communications to lodge an appeal against the ruling in the Altech case with the Supreme Court of Appeal. She has not and the DoC has posted this bit of PR.
The entire release is so typical of a bunch of political bureaucrats living in denial and justifying their actions with sanctimonious puffery, I'm not sure whether to laugh or throw up. Considering the historic moment, I'll opt for a guffaw.
"...The Minister has been made the villain over the past few months for opposing Altech’s court action to obtain a network license. ..."
"...If the Minister continues with a petition, the risk is that ICASA will not be able to convert licenses by 19 January 2009 as required under the ECA, irrespective of the outcome of the petition. This will then require an amendment of the ECA to extend the license conversion period, and may effectively delay license conversion to late 2010. This result is not in anyone’s interest and will not best serve the ICT sector, operators and consumers. ..."
1st you make regulatory changes which enable self-provision by VANS and then cause total confusion by saying (the day before it is effective) that it was not your intention, then when you're challenged in court and found wanting, you appeal, lose the appeal and then decide to drop the whole matter because you suddenly have an attack of conscience (albeit a sulky one) and recall you have stakeholders who are interested in more competition and lower prices? Ah yes, but they have things called votes do they not, and you have cope with elections next year?
I still think the main problem (as I reiterated to Lloyd Gedye of the M&G just recently) is that the DoC have never been able to communicate in a clear and unambiguous manner what their vision for the future ICT market is (assuming they have one).
One thing I do know, is that an enterprise of any sort without a clear, commonly shared vision of the future is doomed to go nowhere at top speed. Even King Solomon seemed to know that!
I wonder which windmills will be tilted at next?
PS.
yes, the lack of an "h" after the "w" in the first word of the title of the post was originally a typo, but then I decided I quite liked the pun, so I left it! ;)
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