For general publication or letters pages
Incumbent: Friend or Foe to SA Economy
It is with interest and bated breath that this writer has been watching developments on South Africa’s first consumer driven internet forum
www.MyADSL.co.za. A forum dedicated to the reform of South African telecommunications industry and to the bringing to book of our incumbent telecommunications provider.
They are doing a sterling job of shedding light on unacceptable business practice, particularly so because they put their money where their mouth is. In April, they secured a hearing with the regulator ICASA in which our incumbent was taken to task on several issues, not the least of which was the affordability of network connectivity.
They have rattled cages all over the country and abroad. They have shed light on so many aspects of our incumbent’s failure to perform and resultant impact on our population and economy that it is impossible not to sit up and take notice.
Amusingly, they have challenged the Proudly South African Campaign to rescind our incumbent’s membership based on the company’s appalling track record with regards to fair competition and labour policy. Laughably, our incumbent’s reach stretches so far as to make such an expulsion impossible – they are founding members of the Proudly South African campaign. How does that make other members feel one wonders.
To quote just one gem on intelligence off the forum, an extract taken from the US Securities and Exchange Commission Filing of 2004;
“We intend to continue to reduce our fixed-line headcount over the next few years. Our ability to implement optimal employee reductions is limited by South African labour laws. In addition, legal requirements make such reductions costly. We also face pressure from labour unions in South Africa who oppose employee reductions and may encounter resistance from the Government of the Republic of South Africa if the reductions conflict with the Government's social objectives at the time. If we are unable to reduce the number of our fixed-line employees and employee expenses or if significant labour unrest results from implementation of our fixed-line employee reduction program, our ability to compete may be harmed and our net profit could decline.
MyADSL challenge this statement with the fact that a reduction to date of over 30 thousand people (yes you did read that correctly) has gone largely unchallenged by the government and quite understandably so; the government have a large and substantial stake in the incumbent and revenue is revenue. Why would the government do anything to protect the rights and the welfare of labour when their dividend would take a hit?
Furthermore, MyADSL point out that South Africa is the only country on the planet where the trend is to reduce fixed line services. In fact, MyADSL point out that the vast majority of the population of South Africa cannot afford a fixed line service. South Africa now has less telephone lines in operation than it did five years ago. MyADSL also state that certain fixed line call charges are more expensive than any other country in the world and three times more expensive than the country that came in second place. No wonder our incumbent’s published after tax profit for 2004 was R4, 592 billion (which equates to R12, 58 million in profit per day).
This is from a company that published their objectives in a Strategic Services Agreement in 1997 including the following statements;
Satisfy economically viable demand for basic needs in telephony service for all South Africans and increase coverage of priority customers, such as educational and medical facilities, community centers and governmental agencies … Assist economic growth in South Africa by providing a national telecommunications infrastructure which will promote the creation of an "information society” … Promote the maintenance of employment within the core areas of Telkom, to the extent possible
To what extent our incumbent has achieved this is challenged openly by the forum. Report after report is published confirming that Government and our incumbent’s telecommunications policies are severely harming South Africa's economy. These reports reinforce that SA's connectivity charges are amongst the highest in the world, and in several cases, the highest.
One doesn’t have to look too far to see why these South Africans are so up in arms.
This writer says more strength to them. As a regular reader of the forum it would be my recommendation that any South African who shells out a cent to our incumbent in any way shape or form, takes a look. They can be found at
www.MyADSL.co.za. The next US Securities and Exchange Commission Filing is due on the 6th June 2005 - watch this space…
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Very nicely worded and definately gets the point across 
