Gratis Wi-Fi nog te duur

CRAN! CRAN? Behalwe vir 'n groot aantal werknemers en 'n hoop voertuie en busse . . . . . . . wat doen hulle om hul bestaan te regverdig. Verskaffer van werkgeleenthede? Dis omtrent al.

This article is especially disturbing given CRAN’s frank October 2021 Telecommunication Sector Market Report for Namibia https://www.cran.na/yglilidy/2021/12/CRAN-Telecommunications-Sector-Market-Report-Oct-2021.pdf wherein It assessed developments in Namibia’s telecommunications sectors for 2020. It took into account the financial health and performance of Namibian operators, consumer price developments in the telecommunications sector, changes in the competitive landscape and general trends for 2021. Critically, the main trend since 2014 has been the nationalisation of the ICT sector, and the state presently controls 92% of ICT sector assets and 82.5% of ICT sector revenues. CRAN’s income statements and lengthy excuses for negative returns in their Annual Financial Report for 2020 (part of a glossy 124 page pdf downloadable from their website) gave me cause to ponder their status of ‘regulatory authority’; CRAN and its siblings in arms (Telecom, MTC and PowerCom) should rather be redefined as “profitable income-generating SOEs” with misconstrued philanthropy. As a profitable income-generating SOE, CRAN has had persistent destructive legal disputes with the other profitable SOEs TELECOM and MTC, all “wards” of the state - more directly, the custodian Ministries of ICT and Finance. They ostensibly share a common vision for universal access, sustainable development, global warming, covid mitigation and other tiresome clichés; someone needs to light a large fire cracker under this administration’s arse; all three SOEs should be accountable to the custodian Ministries, so WTF? In 2021, MTC’s profit after tax was N$ 743.3 million, and dividends of N$ 600+ million were paid out. Telecom and Powercom did not fare quite as well, but critically none of these SOEs should have any excuse to delay genuine philanthropy by taking their regulator to court over moneys which ultimately land in the coffers of the state.