Our Government's shares in telecoms!

Sneeky

Sneeky

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We know that they directly own 38% or so in Telkom, which in turn owns 50% of Voadacom, so they have got their bread buttered there.
The SNO, whats their stake in that, and also Sentech as well, thats partly state owned is it not?
Anymore?
Im also quite interested in the ministers and influential folks that own shares in this monopoly so if anyone can shed some more light on this please do.
Thx
 
You'd think that it would be law that ministers and other governmental persons would be required to disclose being shareholders. It would be a huge conflict of interest if her poisoness (Ivy) turned out to be a shareholder.
 
Ministers have to declare their assets, so any conflict of interest would be known.

As for Government owning parts of the companies...good.
Pure free-market economies are flawed. We take a good middle ground.
 
What normally happens thou (and this is a huge problem) is that Telkom offers these ministers jobs...so lets say Ivy gets the boot, she gets a high paying job at telkom and uses her influence withing goverment to push the telkom agenda. Not only that, but you have to ask when these jobs get offered. She may already be assured of a life of luxury by telkom (something she wouldnt have to declare).
 
JStrike said:
Ministers have to declare their assets, so any conflict of interest would be known.

As for Government owning parts of the companies...good.
Pure free-market economies are flawed. We take a good middle ground.
Click to expand...
Pure free-market economies are flawed? We wouldn't know because a pure free-market economy is only a theory so any flaws would also be theoretical.

And as for us taking a good middle ground - what possible comparison are you judging this on? Thanks to the government's coddling of telkom we pay some of the highest telecommunication fees in the world. There's no middle ground there. Its fact. Corruption, bribery and sheer incompetence do not make a good middle ground. You either introduce large amounts of competition or you regulate effectively or even a combination of the two - you don't sit around and do nothing. Its called government for a reason - they're supposed to govern and make life better for the people - not just themselves.
 
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I'll will second that. I really cant think how anything our goverment do at the moment can be seen as good..
 
Didn't any one listen to the PodCast... Goverment and Telco's are a thing of the past. 10-20 years ago yes but not now. Generally speaking the only countries left that the goverment have shares or owns the fixed line operator are communist or dictorial goverments. Most democracies have moved away from this goverment involvement!

Then again the ANC support communism(close enough that I can get away with a statement as such)

"The ANC is not a Communist Party. But as a defender of democracy, it has fought and will continue to fight for the right of the Communist Party to exist. "
 
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James : Although your comment is technically correct, it is still wrong and irresponsible
 
bwana : The US is the country that is closest to complete free-market. And many of their social downfalls recently can be attributed to it. As for the rest of your statement, I agree. Although I think that the government is trying to correct the wrongs of the past, in regard to Telkom at the moment. But we will see in a couple of years if they had the political will to change the Telecoms environment for the better
 
If any of the people in Gov have Telkom shares they sure as hell wouldn't buy it under their own name.

They would get a friend to buy them.. a proxy.. then when payout comes, the friend hands over the money.. favours, see.
 
JStrike said:
James : Although your comment is technically correct, it is still wrong and irresponsible
Click to expand...

I got the information off www.anc.org.za... I am not following why it is irresonsible. Is tripartate -alliance not COSATU, ANC, SACP which pretty much runs South Africa. Correct me again it I am not mistaken that SACP stands for South African Communist Party. Why is my comment irresponsible?
 
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