Icasa opens its mouth only to change feet

Former Vodacom boss Alan Knott-Craig once said the Independent Communications Authority of SA should do the telecoms sector a favour and stay at home.

Events last week suggest they’d have been doing themselves a big favour too. Their bizarre last- minute scramble to block the listing of Vodacom, one month after effectively giving it the go-ahead, infuriated everybody and left whatever reputation it still had — for competence, independence and transparency — in tatters.

Trade union Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi is fuming because the regulator took so long to see the light after initially announcing that its approval for the deal was not needed. He denied that the trade union put any pressure on Icasa to change its mind, although he admitted that he had spoken to Icasa chairman Paris Mashile about the matter. “We told them they are wrong. I contacted the chairperson and told him that they’d better have a re-look at it.

“I guess they did that and they saw they were not on very strong ground.”

Having unleashed the biggest controversy in Icasa’s distinctly chequered history, chairman Mashile (who, according to his former private secretary, spends a fair amount of his time in the office asleep) made sure he was not around to manage the fallout. He went to Uganda for the week. And apparently left instructions not to be disturbed.

The attempts of his media chief Jubie Matlou to keep us away from Mashile and, indeed, thwart every effort to get answers from anybody else strongly suggests that Icasa knows it has bungled quite spectacularly and is in a state of utter confusion about what to do next.

Public hearings about the listing would go ahead in June, he said.

What’s the point if the listing has already happened? “The listing of Vodacom and the holding of public hearings are mutually exclusive,” he explained. “Or mutually inclusive.”

Clearly, I needed to contact the boss, Uganda or not. “You can’t talk to Paris without going via me.”

Could he pass on my questions?

Send your questions by all means, he offers graciously. “But we won’t be responding until we receive the transcript (of last week’s judgment) and have gone through all the issues.” He says this could be on Friday, but it could also be next week.

What about questions that don’t require a detailed study of the judgment? Such as, why did Icasa change its mind? And how could Icasa justify its belated attempt to interdict the listing on the grounds that this would bring regulatory certainty when it has done just the opposite?

“We don’t want to respond piecemeal pending our receipt of the full judgment,” says Matlou. “We have to ventilate the issues and come up with a position.”

I suggest he is being obstructive.

“I’m helping you.”

How?

“By telling you to wait.”

Can somebody from Icasa at least explain why they changed their minds?

Only a councilor can do that, he says.

I get hold of councillor Marcia Socikwa, having heard that she led Icasa’s rearguard action to block the deal. “I cannot respond to that as an individual,” she says. Council needs to respond to this.

“Send your questions as soon as possible and she will facilitate such a response.”

When? “Well, not soon. Most of the councillors are out of the country.” And they will need to meet to discuss the questions and workshop a response.

I remind her that being a Sunday newspaper we need a response before Sunday.

She quite understands, she says helpfully.

“Council will probably be meeting on Monday.”

Discuss ICASA’s Vodacom decision

Business Times