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WE DESERVE IT!

18/08/2017 07:32:00 By Martin Dlamini

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NOW that we’ve ‘tasted’ it, we want more! This is the general mood of the public following the ‘liberalisation’ of the telecommunications industry and the arrival of Swazi Mobile.

The benefits accrued to the public, after a decade-long wait, are a treat well deserved. However, these developments are just starters. The main course is next and Members of Parliament have placed an enticing menu on the telecommunications table, demanding nothing but the best of what the sector has to offer.
Startling statistics have been revealed which show how service providers are forced to pay SPTC more than 10 times what is paid in neighbouring countries each month, with Botswana and South Africa used as an example. You dread making the next call; it’s scary.

It is these figures, among other things, that have motivated a motion moved by Mangcongco MP Patrick Motsa calling upon the Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Dumsani Ndlangamandla to bring a Bill to Parliament in 14 days that contains amendments to liberalise SPTC’s International Gateway communications backbone infrastructure monopoly.
This move has whetted the appetite of the business community that has been quick to support the motion to amend the Electronic Communications Act of 2013; and rightly so.

The Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce (FSE&CC) say Section 53 of the Act is in direct conflict with the country’s ICT policy, the principles of Swaziland’s Investor Roadmap Strategy and international best practices which all advocate for the full liberalisation of the ICT industry.

FSE&CC President Andrew Le Roux placed statistics that best describe just how bitter our communications industry tastes in the mouth each time we make that call.
He highlighted that; in terms of the 2016 Global Information Technology Report, Swaziland was ranked among the top 10 most expensive (9th out of 15) in the SADC region in pre-paid cellular tariffs; the second highest after Southern Sudan in Africa and 128th highest out of 139 globally.

This is highly taxing for a poor country like ours and this has to change if we are serious about being a highly competitive country that is ideal for foreign direct investment.
Government is reluctant to liberalise the gateway that would empower its people economically; citing threats to national security. The question becomes how all the other countries that have liberalised the gateway still exist?
Is government admitting to having a highly incompetent security service that is unable to provide national security without the gateway in their hands? If there is one taxpayer sponsored trip that the security chiefs deserve it is to fly to the gateway free countries and learn how the security forces in those countries protect the citizens. The sooner they do this the better because we all deserve relief from high communication charges.

However, as we salivate on the benefits that the success of the motion could serve us, let us not forget that the move to unbundle the Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) is equally urgent.
Some industry players are raising the argument that the comparison with the Botswana gateway is misdirected because one is in the hands of a privatised entity while SPTC remains a state entity.
They say Botswana transferred the assets of the wholesale functions of Botswana Telecoms Corporation (BTC) to a wholesale entity known as BOFINET and the Botswana Government went further and privatised BTC in order to enable it to be a competitive entity.

They also believe that the telecommunications regulator should rather start dealing with a cost based pricing model. This is to suggest we are still paying far too high a charge compared to what it really costs to provide the call. So just how excessively are we paying to make a call locally?

That being said, further benefits to the consumer lie in having SPTC liberalised in order to compete fairly. The ICT minister has deliberately lost the vigour with which he brandied the unbundling of SPTC, to all who cared to listen, that would have created a third mobile entity in the industry.

It is obvious that political influence is at play here and Parliament is, therefore, the best place to deal with it. Whatever the outcome, it should only be in the best interest of the public, not individuals. We’ve carried the burden for over a decade too long. We now deserve nothing less than all the benefits that a liberalised telecommunications sector has to offer.