Speaker, Telkom is in hot water and deservedly so. The Competition Commission is pondering the size of the fine it will impose on Telkom for its greed and bullying tactics in dealing with South Africa's value-added network service providers.
Telkom has few sympathisers. Its dead hand on the expansion of communications networks that are the nervous system of commerce and government service delivery has damaged our economy. With its vicelike grip firmly around the honey pot, Telkom used unfair legal advantage to undercut service providers, driving many out of business and limiting the services the others could offer.
Eight years ago Telkom could have acquiesced in the Competition Commission's finding that it had indulged in uncompetitive behaviour, and it could have freed our communications community to expand with vigour. Instead, it chose to use taxpayers' and customers' money to fight the indefensible and further hobble our economic expansion. It tried every legal tactic to wriggle off the hook.
The fact that it was allowed to do so by its shareholders - of which this government is by far the largest - was a dereliction of their duty. They are responsible for allowing this travesty to drag on for years, at immeasurable cost to the economy.