Vodacom blows R30m on party

[Toby]

"Capitalism" gave SA the ability to make a Cell call from virtually anywhere to anywhere.

"Cronyism" in the form of Telkom created the void that the cell companies have filled. At this rate, landlines will pale in non existance.

Let them celebrate, how many spaza shops and "non formal" economic enterprises, have had there lives made easier and more efficient, by cell technology.

Rollon wireless/Wimax/Cell/EDGE/3G/VOIP etc etc, and let telkom slowly die, with their old "physical" technology.

 

[Dovi]

I think it's totally fair of VodaCom to do this. They're a great company and all, and to anyone bitching about their huge profits and all - their prices aren't that bad.. could be improved, but they're not that bad, and at the end of the day they are a company and they have to get good returns back to the shareholders. That's business. There service wouldn't be nearly as good if they gave all proceeds to charity.

 

[bwana]

OK - new question - would people saying the amount spent on the party was justified feel any different if it the title read "Telkom blows R30m on party"?

 

[DVDA]

Well, the people who feel it is justified seem to be saying that the service is good and prices are fair, and therefore they should be able to party. The same definitely cannot be said for Telkom's service, and so I personally feel that they should improve their core business offerings before celebrating anything.

"All" your disposable income? R30,000,000 is about 0.35% of Vodacom's annual profits. I certainly do donate far more than that percentage of my disposable income to charity, so I guess I can complain then.

While we might argue that not all profit is "disposable", I applaud the fact that you actively donate to charity. I think you have also highlighted that in the grand scheme of things, this party really cost Vodacom very little, and people should be more concerned what they do with the other 99.65% of their profit.

 

[rooijan]

R4285.71 per person doesn't really sound totally unreasonable...

R4285.71 per person for a party? That's a months salary (or a very significant fraction of it) for a _lot_ of people. What sort of amount would it take to be unreasonable?

What exactly went on at this bash? Could somebody who was there fill us in? I can imagine entertainment by Madonna, caviar, champagne by the bucket, helicopter rides, etc. The mind boggles.

 

[bwana]

I posted that based on costs associated with getting 7000 people in one place at one time - return plane tickets for those from other parts of the country, and then accomodation for a night, and then only start looking at entertainment & food etc for the event itself, but I wasn't there, I haven't seen the breakdown of the costs - I can only guess, and I'm guessing that this is how much such an event for 7000 people actually costs...

Why assume plane tickets and accommodation were included - nothing in the news24 article or the original Sunday Times article (http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A158695) suggests it.

IMO Dimension Data had a good idea

Instead of staging a party, information technology company Dimension Data this week collected and distributed presents to children at Cotlands Baby Sanctuary in Turffontein, east of Johannesburg.

Course giving r30million to orphans or desolate people would just spoil them wouldnt it

 

[Nick333]

OK - new question - would people saying the amount spent on the party was justified feel any different if it the title read "Telkom blows R30m on party"?

Ok well what percentage of Telkom employees even deserve their jobs in the first place?

Honestly though if i felt that Telkoms employees were giving the sort of sevice that they should, i certainly wouldnt begrudge them a bit of a reward. In fact with Telkoms record for laying people off in their droves i would actually applaud Telkom for doing something nice for worthy employees.

 

[DigitalSoldier]

I think vodacom should enjoy it they give good customer service and in a way care about their customers unlike the govt when the president got re-elected they spent 60m on a party