Dr Mncube weighs in on ICT
Dr Mncube said he was amazed that other telecoms companies that opposed his decision at the time are now positioning themselves for possible mergers.
The former chairperson of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), Dr Stephen Mncube, believes the country’s Information and Communications Technology Sector still has a long way to go.
Dr Mncube, a Bedfordview resident, said he was anxious to see how the negotiations between fixed-line operator, Telkom, and Cell C would go following the latter’s announcement that was interested in buying and taking over Cell C.
He said during his time at ICASA, he received a lot of criticism when he granted Vodacom permission to buy one of South Africa’s biggest internet service providers, Neotel.
The transaction, which was over R7-billion, was finalised in May 2014.
Dr Mncube said he was amazed that other telecoms companies that opposed his decision at the time are now positioning themselves for possible mergers.
“During my time at ICASA, I had a vision of where ICT must go and I knew I needed to steer all stakeholders towards that direction,” said Dr Mncube.
He called on government to form a body that would look specifically at the allocation of spectrum which he believes is the modern gold of the country.
“And this would need to be a separate entity affiliated to the state. Other countries are already on LTE 5 and we are still on 3G. This means we are already behind and need to act,” he said.
The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) and the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) are both the brainchild of Dr Mncube.
He said people can only grow when they communicate.
“Where people don’t talk war erupts. We need our young to stand up and make profession the orchestration of their lives and take pride in their country,” he said.
On November 19, Telkom announced that it had ended its talks with Cell C after the parties could not reach an agreement on assessment of value of the proposed transaction.
