Summary of the Written Representations on the Telecommunications Policy Directions that were Gazetted on the 23rd March 2001 by the Minister of Communications as presented to the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee
Our union views the current draft policy directions on telecommunication as a great initiative not only towards deepening telecommunication access to the people of our country We believe that this initiative could set an important pace towards the overall socio-economic development of our country We make this assertion on the basis that affordable aid accessible telecommunication infrastructure will not only afford the citizens of our country greater opportunities communicate to be informed, to be educated and be to able access better health services. We but it should also contribute directly to job creation development of local economies and spreading of economic activities in underdeveloped areas of the country but we believe that this will only be possible with certain additions and amendments to the current draft policy direction positions. We shall come back to these points later in this draft representation.
For now let us first take this opportunity to thank the portfolio committee for inviting us to submit our views on this important development.
Brief Profile Of CWU
Before going through our submissions. we wish to present a brief profile of our union. This may help in clarifying our mandates and the logic of our submissions
CWU is affiliated to COSATU a trade union federation that represent the interest of more than two million workers. Our organising scope covers the broad communication industry of South Africa. We constantly strive to adequately represent the interests of workers in the telecommunication and cellular phone. the postal and courier, broadcasting, computing and other Information Technology industries. The satellite communication industry is included in our scope of organising. We also have a presence in the arena of arts and culture.
Policies of our union also direct us to have interests in the socio-economic development of our country in the interests of all our people, especially workers and the poor people of our communities in general. We always strive to advance these interests through. among others. struggling to democratise the communication and information infrastructures of our country
Our Comments On The Draft Policy Directions Document
Our comments on the intended policy directions paper do not cover all the aspects raised in the document. The fact that we are not commenting on all the aspects raised should not be construed as rejection or endorsement of those areas not covered.
In making our comments we shall refer to the various clauses, sequentially',', as numbered in the in the Ministerial Policy Directions document. However. before we make our comments we want to briefly explain our own view of the role that a developmental state should assume in relation to the economic infrastructure of that particular state.
The Role Of A developmental State In Relation to Its Economic Infrastructure
We align ourselves with the universal view that identifies South Africa as a developmental state that still has to attain the status of first world countries. We also accept that some the citizens of this country still endure third world status of livelihood.
We also contend that a telecommunications infrastructure is an important infrastructure. which makes economic activity possible, as it is an important determinant factor of the cost structures of firms. We also submit that telecommunications improves the provision of other essential services such as education and health.
The report of the World Bank of the year 200 proposes that the power of the state should be used to redistribute resources and create greater equalities. especially where it is to do with creating assets in areas such as infrastructure.
We therefore submit that the role of the state in the telecommunication infrastructure should not be diluted by part privatisation or be removed through wholesale privatisation.
We further wish to argue that the ability of our country to meaningfully interact with globalisation for the interests of our people demands that government should take a central role in the telecommunication infrastructure. Private sector involvement will further entrench the existing inequalities both internally and internationally. This is due to the simple reason that private capital does not take interests in wider social benefits. It invests only for the profit motive. We repeat that private capital is not capable of taking into its interests the wider national economic and non-economic effects of the telecommunication infrastructure and therefore will not provide such infrastructure to the level where it sufficiently serves the society as a whole.
The central theme, therefore, of our submission is that the current intended telecommunications policy directions should emphasise on government ownership and strong control. We assert that the development of the telecommunication infrastructure and its expansion. especially' to under-serviced and non-serviced areas should be in the hands of government.
We further argue that there may' well be other methods of raising resources for this infrastructure development and expansion outside part or full privatisation models. if the argument for privatisation were based on lack of resources to finance such infrastructure development.
With this policy position in mind, which we argue should be the premise on which the policy directions of the minister should depart from, we wish to further comment on the following clauses.
Utilisation Of Telkom's Facilities By The SNO (clause 3 and its sub-clauses on page 4) We submit that one of the condition that should be contained in the envisaged agreement between Telkom and the SNO should be the roll-out of telecommunication infrastructure. with particular emphasises of the roll-out being to the under-serviced and non-serviced areas of the country. In relation to this submission. it should be noted that Telkom has been focusing on operations that serve big business and wealthier communities. We believe that this rollout should have clear specific targets and periods for the set rollout. This rollout and its target should begin within the first year after the signing of the agreement. We would also further propose that there should be clear penalties for non-delivery according to the set targets and periods.
We believe that this condition would go some way towards ensuring much more speedier access to telecommunication infrastructure for socio-economic development.
It is also our view that such an approach would go a long way towards negating the massive job destruction programmes that Telkom has embarked upon. In this regard. it should be noted that between March 2000 and January 2001. Telkom has destroyed more than 1 7 000 jobs. It is also becoming evident that Telkom is bent on destroying even more jobs. Telkom seems bent on further cutting its staff complement to less than 20 000 from the current staff complement of about 45 000 workers which stood at almost 62 000 as early as 1999.
We believe that a position were the skilled workers who lost their jobs in Telkom would be in a better position to be brought back to economic activity if such a condition were to be insisted upon by ICASA. Indeed. we believe that the state has a contractual (ie the social contract entered into through the process of voting and the election manifestos) and moral duty to protect our communities against such massive job pogroms.
We welcome clause 3.8 on page 4 since this would. in a way. signify consolidation of the government's telecommunication infrastructure and aligning these to serve the purpose of fast-tracking socio-economic development.
In the same vain we would argue that genuine Black Economic Development would also be sufficiently protected through these state parastatals as they go about building telecommunication infrastructure in previously disadvantaged sections of our country. This would therefore remove clause 3.6 as it currently stands in the policy directions document.
We would also argue that clause 3.9 would need to be rephrased to the extent of removing foreign ownership of such an important economic infrastructure of the country. We would also reluctantly concede that if such foreign ownership were to be conceded to. then more research would need to be undertaken within models of Public Private Ownership of state assets.
Proposed Additional Clauses Under Clause 3
·
We wish to propose that an additional clause be added to the conditions that the SNO shall be forced to observe. We submit that this clause should relate to developing the SNO's infrastructure through usage of local technology and industries. as far as practically possible. so as to encourage local economic development and job creation.
·
We also submit that any agreement that will be entered into between Telkom and the SNO should be divulged and be made public knowledge.
Our desire for such a clause seeks to avert the apparent disastrous relationship between some of our parastatals like Telkom and the Post Office. In the case of Telkom, the share-holders agreement has had the effect that this parastatal is being forced to lose millions through disastrous projects such as I Care flo Thro, were foreign technology' was imported and later became unsuitable for local consumption. In the case of the Post Office. the Strategic Equity Partners have managed to reap millions in rewards whilst dismally failing to deliver on the contract.
·
We would also submit that any contract between Telkom and the SNO should be premised on the goals of RDP
Our Representation In Relation To Market Assessment (clause 7 on page 5) We wish to argue that the assessment that would need to be done should be based not on market assessment that would seek to alienate state ownership of this economic infrastructure.
We believe that the assessment that would need to be conducted should relate to the level of penetration of telecommunication services to all the areas of our country.
Our View On Under-Serviced Areas (clause 8 on Page 5) We submit that more research needs to be done on co-operatives as another vehicle towards speeding penetration of services not only to under-serviced areas but also to non-services areas.
We believe the concept of co-operatives may be a suitable vehicle since it does entirely take away ownership of the country's economic infrastructure and locate within the whims of profit driven provision of essential services.
Even under circumstances where ICASA has researched the feasibility of establishing Co-operatives. we submit that the state should remain occupying the central role in directing further penetration of services rather than abrogating its responsibility to the whims of the market.
We also wish to submit that a research that would be commissioned by ICASA on the feasibility of co -operatives should also consider capacity building for such co-operatives
CWU's Submission On Universal Access And Universal Service Objectives (clause 2 on page 7)
We support this clause since it seeks to remove discrimination on differently disabled persons. We further submit that this clause as it stands could unwittingly invite other forms of discrimination. We would therefore propose that this particular clause should include the historically disadvantaged Communities. among these organised women. workers representative trade unions and the representatives of the various marginalised schools of thought.
We submit that this definition of the disadvantaged communities should be incorporated to both clause 2 1 and 2.2
Our Submission On The Restructuring Of Universal Service Agency (clause 3 on page 7)
We submit that the seven-member board envisaged in clause 3.1 should include members of the disadvantaged communities as defined in our submission on clause 2 above.
Our Views Accountability Of ICASA (refer to clause 2.5 on page 10)
We support this clause as it seeks to make ICASA accountable to our democratic government. We further believe that to make such accountability more effective. public hearings on the performance of ICASA must be conducted and the outcome of these interviews. including the recommendations of the interviews. should be incorporated into the annual report to the minister.