Minister ‘mismanaged’ telecoms
The Minister of Communications has not managed, but mismanaged, liberalisation of the telecoms sector in South Africa. This is according to the DA’s Dene Smuts.
“It is deeply ironical that she now wishes to appeal Acting Judge N Davis’s ruling in the Altech case on the argument that her managed liberalisation policy would be undermined,” the DA said.
“The judge found convincingly that she had misapplied her one last remaining power to influence the pace of liberalisation under the new Electronic Communications Act.”
“That section relates to the rate at which networks of national scope can be licensed. She tried to apply that provision to the license conversion process, but the law expressly forbids any Ministerial involvement in Icasa’s licensing functions.”
According to the DA Judge Davis also brought years of messy Ministerial interventions and reversals starting in September 2004 on the status of value added network service licencees to an end by ruling that they may build networks.
“The Minister should now let it rest. In fact, I believe the Minister does want to rest, and that it is probably the Director-General Lyndal Shope-Mafole who is threatening to disrupt liberalisation again,” said DA MP Dene Smuts.
“Shope-Mafole is a member of the post-Polokwane NEC of the ANC, but no-one should interpret her anti-competitive stance in this case or the case of undersea cables to leftist leanings.”
“Like her predecessor, who also ruled Ivy’s roost, she strikes us as a BEE capitalist, and an ambitious one.”
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