Neo-liberal ICT policy has 'disastrous outcomes'

The document is critical of the lack of transformation since the transition to democracy, noting that many of the sector's key institutions are in a mess, and that the country is underperforming in terms of key ICT indicators.

While the authors blame these problems on fragmented and uncoordinated policy and institutional arrangements, Duncan argues that this "is not the whole picture." In the mid 1990's, she says, the ANC championed a largely neo-liberal approach to ICT restructuring, with disastrous outcomes for the sector. Key communications parastatals that were commercialised in the 1990's - like Telkom, the SABC and Sentech - have experienced meltdowns to varying degrees. This strongly suggests that the neo-liberal model of running public sector institutions using private sector principles and practices simply does not work.

Fixed line telecommunications parastatal Telkom, for example, has been partially privatise, generating "an untold amount of profit [for Telkom] investors." But it also led to "customers being charged unaffordable tariffs" resulting in disconnection most of the lines Telkom rolled out to attain universality. Duncan concludes that, had the policy solution been to privatise and liberalise at the same time, subject to a strong, independent regulator, as has been proposed by key South African telecommunications policy critics, then "undoubtedly the parastatals would have been forced to up their business games under threat of competition."

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