Mbeki criticises high telecom rates

Does anyone know what the "Batho Pele Gateway" actually means & is there a url somewhere? :confused:

The government hubs sound like a good idea, a good step forward for our African country & hopefully an example for the rest of the continent, well so I hope anyway.
 
as long as its not lip service it's all good..
 
I think I am just too impatient and I'm sure I am not on the only one here - when somebody says something, it must happen yesterday and weather the government is going to intervene to make telecoms cheaper in the next month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months or so for me is still just a pipe dream.

I'll wait and see what happens ..... but in the meantime, let us keep on making our voices louder and louder!!
 
Can the Gov actually force an immediate reduction in call costs etc ?
 
I was surprised as hell to see Mbeki say this. I'm impressed.

However talk is cheap ...
 
The power of comsumer lobbying groups ... a central theme from rpm in public interviews, and all comments from general myADSL membership has been to compare local costs with other African / developing economies. Not only has the comparison struck a nerve, it has become part of the vocabulary amongst government people in high places.
 
I can imagine the private conversation now :-

Ivy : Er, Mr. Mbeki - about your "10 times" statement
Prez : yes
Ivy : Well, the government owns 39.2% of Telkom
Prez : and ?
Ivy : If we made prices 10 times less than they are ... you and I won't be getting new cars this year and we'll have less money to travel and you won't be able to galvant all over the world and africa solving eveyone else's problems except our own ...
Prez : ah, yes, I see - oh well, let me go and smoke my pipe and forget I said anything about telecommunications being too expensive - a bit like the Zimbabwe situation, or HIV/AIDS ...
 
ic said:
Does anyone know what the "Batho Pele Gateway" actually means & is there a url somewhere? :confused:

The government hubs sound like a good idea, a good step forward for our African country & hopefully an example for the rest of the continent, well so I hope anyway.
Click to expand...

Batho Pele = putting people first; www.gov.za

an explicit criticism of high rates = explicit criticism of telkom...while still words this is definitely a step forward...now we can preface all criticism of telkom with "On 11 February President Thabo Mbeki stated in his 2005 State of The Nation Address that it is “unacceptable” that telecommunications rates in SA are 10 times higher than those in developed countries"
 
dominic said:
Batho Pele = putting people first; www.gov.za

an explicit criticism of high rates = explicit criticism of telkom...while still words this is definitely a step forward...now we can preface all criticism of telkom with "On 11 February President Thabo Mbeki stated in his 2005 State of The Nation Address that it is “unacceptable” that telecommunications rates in SA are 10 times higher than those in developed countries"
Click to expand...
Just foraged over there with my dodgy Burst-i which is hassling me, so I haven't been able to get a thorough look, but here are some urls:
 
This was very unexpected, but what a nice surprise.

As Harth said, talk is cheap, so lets hope its not the case of "all talk, no action".
 
I have to admit that I never expected to hear that, I am impressed to say the least, if they are serious about the issue and do something about it then I can only take my hat off to the goverment.
 
This is a giant step,The President ,has acknowleged the (10 x)high costs as the problem.where as before the emphasis is to provide competition to Telkom.

I did not expect this pin-point bombardment.

Well Done. Mr President :)

He is starting to play our tunes.I'm very impressed.
 
Saying something and actually doing something is two different things. I have learned this from experience and sat in lots of meetings, with people only too willing to highlight issues and problems, because it actually hides their inability to do something about it.

I will wrote our dear president a sorry mail if something actually happens!
 
Telkom has received untold criticism in recent years for its monopolistic approach to consumers and businesses alike.
There is no doubt that the monopoly has to come to an end - any drunk, retarded fool can see that.
Ivy bought lots of time (enough for the value of her shares in Telkom to soar).
Mbeki is also buying time. Statements like the one he made make all of us happy - and we stay happy for some months - until later on, we realise that nothing much has changed.
And so the cycle goes on, year in and year out, with government conceding ground to the people of this country's quest for deregulation.
Conceding ground only in metres, instead of kilometres...
 
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