BBC : Mbeki urges cheap SA phone calls

[stoke]

No maybe it would mean that government have started to wake up and are dealing the real issues.

But IF ANC forced government to start doing their jobs, properly, why would you want them to leave?

Cos after erektions they'd simply lay about and do nothing again, just like last time.
Tricked me once, shame on you, tricked me twice, shame on me.

 

[RoosTa]

I highly doubt he'll fire our Minister of mis-Communication before this election.

 

[doobiwan]

He should consider it, it'd be a sure way to win votes . . .

 

[Debbie]

Okey Dokey, so here is what our Constitution has to say:

Section 56 (d) says:

56. The National Assembly or any of its committees may-
(d) receive petitions, representations or submissions from any interested persons or institutions.

Section 69 (d) says:

69. The National Council of Provinces or any of its committees may-
(d) receive petitions, representations or submissions from any interested persons or institutions.

Ok, so both the National Assembly AND the NCOP can receive petitions. Great. That's about all it says. I can't find anything that says that either of these bodies has to consider what is presented to them, and I have no idea how this law is interpreted.

Section 91. (2) The President appoints the Deputy President and Ministers, assigns their powers and functions, and may dismiss them.

Section 92. (2) Members of the Cabinet are accountable collectively and individually to Parliament for the exercise of their powers and the performance of their functions.
(3) Members of the Cabinet must-
(a) act in accordance with the Constitution; and
(b) provide Parliament with full and regular reports concerning matters under their control.

Section 96. (1) Member of the Cabinet and Deputy Ministers must act in accordance with a code of ethics prescribed by national legislation.
(2) Members of the Cabinet and Deputy Ministers may not-
(a) undertake any other paid work;
(b) act in any way that is inconsistent with their office, or expose themselves to any situation involving the risk of a conflict between their official responsibilities and private interests; or
(c) use their position or any information entrusted to them, to enrich themselves or improperly benefit any other person.

I will continue this post by editing it later on today.

 

[alacos]

I'm not sure how it works, but it is possible for any group or private person to table a matter in parliament through section 56 (d) of the constitution.

Debbie is right, I'm afraid. All that section 56 (d) says is that the National Assembly or any of its committees may (not must) "receive petitions, representations or submissions from any interested person". They're not obliged to do anything in particular with/about such petitions etc. as they may receive: they could (and, I suspect, frequently do) just consign them to the nearest dustbin.

Michael Alachouzos

 

[werner]

section 96, 2(c) made me fall off my chair laughing.
Thanks

 

[Oliver]

Debbie is right, I'm afraid. All that section 56 (d) says is that the National Assembly or any of its committees may (not must) "receive petitions, representations or submissions from any interested person". They're not obliged to do anything in particular with/about such petitions etc. as they may receive: they could (and, I suspect, frequently do) just consign them to the nearest dustbin.

Michael Alachouzos

Not if there is enough noise made in the media about such submission and enough people backing it and supporting it.

In this case, if parliament know its actions will also be under public scrutiny, it may not be so easy to dispose of the matter in the dustbin... if there is enough follow-up and pressure from the media and interest groups... the submission/petition may actually get somewhere...

 

[Darkling]

Has anyone expressed their opinion to the Prez?

I doubt he has time to sit and surf mybroadband.co.za, what with all those 1000 page "letters to the people". But here is an idea, let him know the old fashioned way!
Some of you may be too young to remember the old kind of letters (made from paper with another smaller sticky piece of paper stuck to a corner), but I promise that he is more likely to take notice of 2000 letters arriving at

The President
Private Bag X1000
PRETORIA
0001,

than a few radio shows and a website. All respect to rpm, he is fighting the good fight, but it might be worth a try.

Stamps are very cheap, ask your parents where the post office is, and get them to help you with the stamp

 

[rpm]

Hi Darkling

Welcome to MyADSL.

We have sent letters to Mr. Mbeki on various occasions, and have received an official reply or two. It usually states that it will be passed on to the Dept of Communications as it falls under their jurisdiction. We have been contacted by the DoC about our significant amount of letters to them (one of the secretaries), but has not received an official reply from Ivy. We have also written to the DoC, Ivy (personally), Padayachee, the DTI, DST, ICASA, DoC managers, parliament, all the political parties etc. This was done by snailmail and email.

More letters will certainly not do any harm. The more the better.

Regards,

RPM

 

[Darkling]

Well, I suppose I was hoping for too much. Im going to send one anyway though, and I am sure once there is an entire landfill filled with our letters and a missing forest, someone will take note

I will miss the trees *sigh*

Well done on trying the old fashioned way though rpm, I probably just missed when that all happened.

 

[dominic]

the minister of communicatins is not, i am told, at all happy in her position and has wished to leave it for some time - pres mbeki has resisted this and requested that she remain in position until the licensing of the SNO is complete. it is widely expected that she will be granted her wishes to resign towards the middle of 2006 if not earlier

i

 

[doobiwan]

Well she's got my full permission to leave by all means . . .

 

[Debbie]

Well, I suppose I was hoping for too much. Im going to send one anyway though, and I am sure once there is an entire landfill filled with our letters and a missing forest, someone will take note

I will miss the trees *sigh*

Well done on trying the old fashioned way though rpm, I probably just missed when that all happened.

Darkling, you have the right approach. Writing old fashioned snail mail letters is a good approach, comparfed to other ways of trying to get attention. The problem, as you have correctly touched on, is that it needs to be done on a mass scale. And people are lazy.

In the USA, lobby groups write out letters and post them on the Internet. They encourage people to simply print out the 'default' letters, and send them off. It works quite well. Maybe we should try something like that?

Perhaps

 

[moosag]

RPM... this goes out to you. With all the media attention, forms of mail (snail and e-mail), etc.. that has been happening ever since Sentech started messing with their customers back then even the whole helkom thing.

I could be wrong here... but I do honestly believe that Mbeki really does not know the extent of the situation. He is being ill-advised by his "advisers" from the DOC (who we all know, know nothing). My point is that the key phrase that you read in almost every article today is "South Africa is falling behind the rest of the world in the Broadband arena... Will SA cash in on this blah blah blah". My question is does Mbeki really know the "Economical" benefit of true broadband penetration and the potential growth of a "truly" liberised telecommunications market???? We here all know... but the question is can these political figures see that far into the future and now worry about their pockets for the moment???

Anyways just food for thought.

 

[Slinky511nx7]

I could be wrong here... but I do honestly believe that Mbeki really does not know the extent of the situation. He is being ill-advised by his "advisers" from the DOC (who we all know, know nothing).

If he has to be advised on the current state of telecoms then obviously he does'nt pay for his own ****. All he has to do is pick up his phone, make a few calls and receive his phone bill. Then he'll se wtf we're on about.

 

[Darkling]

Darkling, you have the right approach. Writing old fashioned snail mail letters is a good approach, comparfed to other ways of trying to get attention. The problem, as you have correctly touched on, is that it needs to be done on a mass scale. And people are lazy.

In the USA, lobby groups write out letters and post them on the Internet. They encourage people to simply print out the 'default' letters, and send them off. It works quite well. Maybe we should try something like that?

Perhaps

Perhaps people should also be writing to the letters pages of their favourite national and local newspapers. My g/f is the deputy editor of our local rag, and she says they just dont realise how big a story this is.
If we let the papers know that there are a lot of people who feel strongly about this, then *bam*, it will be on front pages. The best part is that we can even email THOSE letters in. No sticky tongues or anything

 

[bekdik]

More letters will certainly not do any harm. The more the better.

Regards,

RPM

You got shares in the Postoffice?