Ivy under fire
The communications minister has come under fire recently for her undersea cable landing rights requirements – with many high profile journalists taking the lead in critiquing her latest declarations. Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri recently announced that submarine fiber cables wanting to land in South Africa will have to be majority South African owned.
This effectively means that multi-national cable systems like EASSy and SEACOM would not be able to land in South Africa despite their ability to introduce competition for international bandwidth which will greatly benefit the local economy and drive prices down.
There is speculation that cables which are majority African owned – for which both EASSy and SEACOM qualifies – will be able to land in South Africa, but Matsepe-Casaburri’s insistence that ‘SEACOM’s alliance with Neotel was not enough to satisfy the ownership criteria’ casts a shadow of doubt on this speculation.
A new African West Coast cable system, named Main One, reiterated the difficulty in involving South Africa in these international cable systems, with the project’s CEO, Funke Opeke, saying that he is a “little disappointed with the SA government’s attitude”.
This whole undersea cable debacle involving the communications minister drew sharp criticism from consumers and industry, something which was reiterated by prominent IT journalists in South Africa.
Journalists hit out at Minister
Well known Financial Mail journalist Duncan McLeod called for the minister’s head, saying in an article called “The case for firing Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri” that it is not the first time that journalists have “called for the head of communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri over her incompetent management of SA’s telecommunications industry.”
“But calling for the minister to be fired has achieved nothing. Like health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Matsepe-Casaburri enjoys strong support from President Thabo Mbeki. This is in spite of the fact that she has singularly failed to create a competitive policy environment and failed to bridge the so-called ‘digital divide’,” McLeod says.
Finweek’s Ben Kelly shares McLeod’s views, asking whether “the minister has lost her mind completely or if she just has no idea about the economics of running undersea cable systems.”
In his blog “The madness of Queen Ivy”, Kelly argues that “whatever the reasoning behind this madness it is clear that all government’s bold statements about bringing down the cost of telecommunications are a sham.”
Finweek’s Belinda Anderson says it is time that industry got involved in her article “A call to arms”. “Given that cables must by their very nature land in multiple countries, this pronouncement is mind-boggling. If each country demanded the same, they’d not be able to land anywhere,” Anderson rightly points out.
“If the private sector sits back and mumbles while the minister imposes regulations for undersea cable operators that effectively block foreign investors, then it will also be culpable,” Anderson says.
Corruption a driving force?
Outspoken Sunday Times columnist David Bullard is suggesting something more sinister than mere incompetence is afoot. He claims that the lack of bribes may be behind the blocking of these cable systems.
In his column entitled “All that counts is the colour of money”, Bullard writes:
“Take the terminally inept Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, for example. South Africa likes to think of itself as a thriving business hub, but we are in the Middle Ages compared with our competitors when it comes to communications.”
“That could be sorted out with a couple of very expensive undersea cables, but Ivy has now stalled that decision by insisting that there be majority South African ownership of these cables if they are to land here.
Translation: I see lots of money here so you need to grease the right palms if you want to get this through. Illogical but, sadly, very South African.”
No action expected
As McLeod pointed out in his article, consumers and industry players should not expect any action soon.
There is currently a lot or political wrangling related to the leadership and succession battle, and with Matsepe-Casaburri supporting Mbeki – and receiving support in return – it is highly unlikely that she will get the boot.
Despite what may seem like an unchangeable situation, it is encouraging that high profile journalists continue to address this issue. And if industry pay heed to Anderson’s call to arms it may just result in Matsepe-Casaburri making a u-turn on this issue.
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