[kictanet] Fwd: SV: [AfrISPA.Discuss] Undersea cableplantangled in acrimony inSouth Africa

Eric Osiakwan eric at afrispa.org
Fri Sep 14 15:39:43 EAT 2007


Dear All,

I had refrained from commenting just because of type language being  
used, please, please lets excercise decorum.

First of all, i dont think it is right for us to use certain  
langaguage among ourselves, how much against our present leaders  
especially when we disagree with them on issues...please lets stick  
to the issues because these conversations are about shaping our  
African future and destiny so lets not fall prey to the temptation to  
personalise and loose the focus. I am going to attempt to set the  
conversation back on cause.

I think the question that has bedeviled us is "does ownership of a  
cable or anything for that matter has an impact on the price to  
market and working mechanism?"..... so far the evidence is YES hence  
we need to tackle the owership structure.

The human nature is such that "self centreing" is obvious and hence  
the best bet is "cross checking" by other natures. So in every  
element we setup each other as a check for the other because though  
one would have noble objectives, if the person has absolute power and  
control, falling to the temptation of abuse is almost certain.

So if one investor or constituency has absolute owership, they  
obviously would like to maximise that investment or resource. Like  
SAT3, the incumbent league in some countries are not selling but they  
just prefer to control under all conditions and not let go though  
their investment is down the drain.

I have argued and i do that a collective owership from all  
constituencies is the best way to handle a critical national or  
international infrastructure in a public private partnership where  
the various interested are represented so that the rules convey a  
balance of development, profits, community etc. I think there are  
tools to make this a reality so why dont we try them. On the issue of  
majority owership by Africans, may be the "capitalist niga" would  
do.....

Eric here


From: Brian Longwe <brian at isisweb.nl>
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:10:19 +0300
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fwd: SV: [AfrISPA.Discuss] Undersea  
cableplantangled
in acrimony inSouth Africa
Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
To: eric at afrispa.org

hear, hear my mblatha!

Mblayo

ps. any relationship to Classic's Mwalimu Kingangi?

:-D


On Sep 14, 2007, at 8:46 AM, Ronald King'ang'i wrote:

 > I concur lets keep all discussion civilized
 >
 > King'ang'i
 >
 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: kictanet-bounces+fes=iconnect.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
 > [mailto:kictanet-bounces+fes=iconnect.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke]
 > On Behalf
 > Of Alex Gakuru
 > Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 5:55 PM
 > To: fes at iconnect.co.ke
 > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
 > Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fwd: SV: [AfrISPA.Discuss] Undersea
 > cableplantangled
 > in acrimony inSouth Africa
 >
 > I know that I am usually hard hitting at my opposition
 > discussants, but I am feel expressions used below are
 > uncalled for no matter how opposed the writer's view
 > is.
 >
 > --- Joseph Manthi <jmanthi at gmail.com> wrote:
 >
 >> Sean,
 >> You of all people, a man living in England, reaping
 >> wealth from the
 >> ignorance of Africans, should not be making comments
 >> like these. You
 >> do not want Africans to realize what is going on. Do
 >> not wake a
 >> sleeping giant. It is high time we started taking
 >> care of our own. Why
 >> do you think that what SA is doing is "Rubbish"?
 >> Doesn't this
 >> honourable minister have the right to protect SA
 >> assets from nyangaus
 >> like you?
 >>
 >> I wish every African government is like South Africa
 >> where we can weed
 >> off foreign ownership of African assets.
 >>
 >> Bravo SA.
 >>
 >> Joe
 >>
 >> On 9/13/07, Sean Moroney <seanm at aitecafrica.com>
 >> wrote:
 >>> Yes, the security angle struck me as typical
 >> Newspeak from a regime that can
 >>> get away with rubbish like that where there is no
 >> effective opposition. How
 >>> like their Apartheid forebears they sound!
 >>>
 >>> Sean Moroney
 >>> Chairman
 >>> AITEC Africa
 >>> seanm at aitecafrica.com
 >>>
 >>>
 >>>
 >>>
 >>> -----Original Message-----
 >>> From:
 >>
 > kictanet-bounces+seanm=aitecafrica.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke
 >>>
 >>
 > [mailto:kictanet-bounces+seanm=aitecafrica.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke]
 >> On
 >>> Behalf Of Kai Wulff
 >>> Sent: 12 September 2007 12:54
 >>> To: seanm at aitecafrica.com
 >>> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
 >>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fwd: SV: [AfrISPA.Discuss]
 >> Undersea cable
 >>> plantangled in acrimony inSouth Africa
 >>>
 >>> I second that!
 >>>
 >>> It is comforting to know that SA will provide
 >> security to Africa by
 >>> insisting on a majority ownership of the cables!
 >>>
 >>> I am sure this attitude will change once Kenya
 >> receives capacity @ less than
 >>>
 >>> USD 100,- per M ..
 >>>
 >>> Kai
 >>> ----- Original Message -----
 >>> From: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
 >>> To: <kai.wulff at kdn.co.ke>
 >>> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions"
 >> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
 >>> Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 14:44
 >>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fwd: SV: [AfrISPA.Discuss]
 >> Undersea cable plan
 >>> tangled in acrimony inSouth Africa
 >>>
 >>>
 >>> I used to have a difficult time explaining to
 >> fellow Kenyans that it was
 >>> very difficult dealing with our brothers in SA
 >> because at every meeting
 >>> goal posts kept on shifting.  Perharps now
 >> everybody understands that the
 >>> veto power in the NEPAD protocol was a control
 >> tool.  Below please find
 >>> additional material.
 >>>
 >>> Ndemo.
 >>>
 >>>
 >>> Cables require local ownership BY DAMARIA SENNE &
 >> CHRISTELLE DU TOIT
 >>> <mailto:damaria at itweb.co.za> [ Johannesburg, 10
 >> September 2007 ]
 >>>
 >>> South Africa requires that all undersea cables
 >> landing here be majority
 >>> owned by South Africans, says communications
 >> Minister Ivy
 >>> Matsepe-Casaburri.
 >>>
 >>> Speaking at the Southern African
 >> Telecommunications Networks and
 >>> Applications Conference (Satnac) 2007, in
 >> Mauritius, this morning,
 >>> Matsepe-Casaburri said government was happy with
 >> indications that
 >>> investors plan to land cables in the country.
 >>> However, she will soon announce new landing
 >> guidelines that require that
 >>> "all cables " landing in SA be majority owned by
 >> South Africans, she said.
 >>>
 >>> The guidelines will also be consistent with SA's
 >> foreign policy and take
 >>> the security of the country, and the African
 >> continent, into
 >>> consideration, she said.
 >>> "Every cable landing or leaving SA should
 >> incorporate in it the Nepad [New
 >>> Partnership for Africa's Development] Broadband
 >> Infrastructure Network."
 >>> Security measures are important, given the state
 >> of our insecure world,
 >>> she added.
 >>>
 >>> Matsepe-Casaburri said that she instructed Dep.of
 >> Communications
 >>> Dir-General Lyndall Shope-Mafole to propose the
 >> landing guidelines to the
 >>> Interim Inter-Governmental Assembly for
 >> discussion. She also noted that
 >>> her department studied the communications
 >> regulations of other countries
 >>> when drafting the landing guidelines, ensuring
 >> they are consistent with
 >>> international trends.
 >>>
 >>> Determination expected
 >>> BMI-TechKnowledge senior analyst Richard Hurst
 >> says the implications of
 >>> the ownership stipulations are that "those who do
 >> end up rolling out
 >>> cables will have to do so via partnerships". He
 >> cites Seacom and Neotel's
 >>> interaction as an example of this, where "Neotel
 >> basically would control
 >>> the landing rights of Seacom in SA".
 >>> According to Hurst, "government is trying to hedge
 >> its bets", but the
 >>> stipulations set out by the minister have
 >> generally been expected. He says
 >>> South African companies should benefit from the
 >> directives, as should the
 >>> consumer.
 >>> "It should open up access to those cables and
 >> bring prices down." He adds
 >>> that, as the international community moves towards
 >> always-on broadband, SA
 >>> will also increasingly need high-speed capacity.
 >> However he reiterates:
 >>> "The more bandwidth we have, the better."
 >>>
 >>> Investor support
 >>> Meanwhile, Matsepe-Casaburri said SA was convinced
 >> it was on the right
 >>> path to break away from the Eassy (Eastern Africa
 >> Submarine Cable System)
 >>> cable project and support the Nepad Broadband
 >> Infrastructure Network, as
 >>> well as initiating its own undersea cable systems.
 >>>
 >>> She said there was strong support from potential
 >> investors in the Nepad
 >>> Broadband  (?) Infrastructure Network. "Instead of
 >> people running away
 >>> from us, we have a lot of support from investors."
 >>> SA and other African governments broke away from
 >> the Eassy project because
 >>> larger operators taking part in the initiative
 >> bought such large
 >>> quantities of capacity that there would never be
 >> fair access for smaller
 >>> operators, she noted.
 >>>
 >>> EASSY project was not in line with the Nepad
 >> objective, which was to
 >>> facilitate fair and open access for all telecoms
 >> providers to lower the
 >>> cost of telecoms on the continent, she said. She
 >> noted that SA's
 >>> Parliament had ratified the Nepad Broadband
 >> Infrastructure Network
 >>> protocol.
 >>>
 >>>
 >>>> fyi from the AfrISPA discuss list....
 >>>>
 >>>>
 >>>> Begin forwarded message:
 >>>>
 >>>>> From: "Anders Comstedt" <anders at ssvl.kth.se>
 >>
 > === message truncated ===
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >  
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Eric M.K Osiakwan
Executive Secretary
AfrISPA (www.afrispa.org)
Tel: + 233.21.258800 ext 2031
Fax: + 233.21.258811
Cell: + 233.244.386792
Handle: eosiakwan
Snail Mail: Pmb 208, Accra-North
Office: BusyInternet - 42 Ring Road Central, Accra-North
Blog: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/eric/
Slang: "Tomorrow Now"




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