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SPTC LEFT TO DIE

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The recent public narrative triggered by protestations of the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) over the launches of fixed landlines telephony by the two domestic mobile communications companies mirrors a nation that has decidedly sacrificed the truth on the altar of expediency ostensibly borne out of fear of the known.

This is at the wake of new kid on the block Swazi Mobile launching its fixed wireless service with MTN Swaziland set to follow suit in early 2018. Of course, these developments are a direct threat to the existence of the government parastatal SPTC, which remains banned from entering the mobile communications fray. And when SPTC Managing Director Petros Dlamini sensibly exploited his proximity to Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini during the launch of the SPTC-sponsored e-Government siSwati Name Competition, by ventilating the dire consequences of these developments to the parastatal’s sustainability, the lapdogs jumped into the mêlée and confirmed George Orwell’s observation that ‘in a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act’.

They all avoided the truth. As I see it, instead of feeding the people toxic narratives devoid of facts, it would have been instructive to trace the source of SPTC’s troubled history in the first 10 years of MTN’s existence and thereafter instead of hysterically using falsehoods to pillory the parastatal. I will deliberately ignore the transponders project derailed by the incumbent PM jointly piloted by SPTC and Swazi TV that would have placed the kingdom on the cutting edge of communications ahead of most regional countries and minted money for the two State-owned entities. Indeed, that project would have been a major lubricant to the domestic economy. But rather than crying over spilt milk, it is the genesis of SPTC’s problems that ought to be central in unraveling the parastatal’s inability to move forward. That genesis would be the transfiguration of SPTC’s shareholding in MTN precipitated by ambitious individuals currying favour with government that seems to have evaded the toxic narrative apropos the parastatal’s frustrations and this stifled the parastatal’s developmental trajectory.

That, coupled with the fact that government heavyweights, including the incumbent PM, had betrayed the trust of the nation by investing in MTN and thereby conflicting themselves, the relationship between government and its own entity, SPTC, became toxic. At this point government big-wigs were more worried about their MTN dividends than about their roles as guardians, on behalf of the people, of SPTC. It is a miracle that the parastatal survives to this day.
Interestingly though, were the number of commissions of inquiry into the operations of SPTC that were directly and indirectly initiated by government. Ironically, none of these probes yielded the required outputs. The report of the last enquiry - commissioned by the incumbent PM - that was apparently motivated by a perception that SPTC was run by a mafia, never saw the light of day to this day. And the taxpayer has never been dignified with an explanation for this apparent omission, especially given that huge amounts of money were employed in the exercise.

In the meantime, government used the secretive joint venture agreement (JVA) between SPTC and MTN to frustrate the former even after its 10-year tenure had expired. Even when the matter of the subsistence of the JVA went before the courts for determination, SPTC was suddenly instructed to withdraw its attorneys from the case. The same happened when the matter went before so-called international arbitration from which MTN emerged victorious. Of course if one litigant, is not represented in a matter between two litigants the one who is represented automatically wins but not necessarily on the strength of his/her case but because he/she is uncontested. That is not all on the litigation front since SPTC workers also went to court to challenge the JVA. However, the workers were forced to abandon the case when government threatened to fire them en masse if they persisted, a clear indication that they had a strong and credible case.

Why, just this year Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Dumisani Ndlangamandla made it known that SPTC was leashed by the JVA from entering the mobile communications industry yet he is aware this agreement not only subsisted until 2008 but had been overtaken by the transformation of both the physical and the legal framework that saw a battery of laws coming into effect resulting in, among others, the birth of an independent regulator, the Swaziland Communications Commission (SCCOM) and Swazi Mobile. As I see it, SPTC - outside suspicious corruption-driven hiring of some staff – has done everything possible to survive, including launching the popular fixed mobile service known as ONE. I do not recall MTN going to court to fight ONE but it was government, evidently protecting the pecuniary interests of its elites invested in MTN, which ordered its shutdown. In the face of this overwhelming historical data that is freely and readily available, it is clear that SPTC is not responsible for its plight but it is those the people have trusted with the leadership of this country that are desirous of collapsing the State-owned entity in order to increase their dividends accruing from the two mobile communications operators in which they are investors. SPTC is now an orphan - out of the warm embrace of government - left to die a lonely death!

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