Growing anger over lack of telecommunications access is mobilising poor communities who say they have sat and waited for long enough.
Earlier this month at least 400 people from around the country came together at the People’s Forum on Communication Rights hosted by the Freedom of Expression Institute.
FXI had invited Telkom, Cell C, Vodacom, MTN and the Department of Communications to the forum, but all chose not to attend.
“I want to talk face to face with Telkom,” said Meisie Thulane, a pensioner from the Gapela village, in Limpopo addressing the crowd. “I want to tell them that they are killing us, their prices are sick,” she said.
Thulane told the gathering how she had applied for a Telkom line to use in case of emergencies, but after receiving a bill for R15 000, which she disputes, her line was cut off.
According to a survey conducted by the FXI in Thulane’s community, there are currently no landlines and no public payphones in the entire village. Even the local post office does not have a payphone.
Another survey in Soweto shows that, of the 409 residents who responded, 40% have no phone lines while 92% are dissatisfied with Telkom’s service.
Tshepo Nkosi, a student from Soweto, said students were being disadvantaged because they had to go into town to access the Internet and e-mail that they use for research projects.
“We don’t have money to pay R10 for 15 minutes surfing the Internet. We need those Telecom Centres in our communities,” said Nkosi.
“Telkom needs to pull up its socks and ensure that its clients are satisfied,” said Nkosi to cheers from the crowd.
Poor communities surveyed by FXI in Evaton West and Pretoria showed landline-penetration rates of 0% and 7% respectively, and high levels of dissatisfaction with some residents complaining that they had been waiting for phones since applying for them in 1994.
Telkom was not the only tele-communications company to come in for criticism.
Community leaders attacked cellphone operators as well, complaining of “ridiculously” high prepaid call charges.
“We are tired of prepaid water, prepaid phone, prepaid electricity, prepaid education, prepaid going to the toilet, prepaid everything! We are being robbed,” said a community member from Orlando.
FXI’s director, Jane Duncan, addressed the forum, calling the no-show of the communications companies “unacceptable”.
“We are very upset that a lot of the bigwigs have not seen fit to attend. We have been treated with contempt by companies like Telkom and Cell C and we need to say this is unacceptable. They take our money and will not come and recount to us how the money is spent,” said Duncan.
Duncan claims that the Telkom CEO’s office confirmed receipt of the invitation, but did not consider it a priority, but Telkom says its new CEO Papi Molotsane had not taken up his position yet.
A few days after the forum, FXI held a protest march outside Telkom’s offices in Pretoria in response to their no-show.
Telkom spokesperson Lulu Letlape said Molotsane is committed to listening to community grievances and has since arranged a meeting with FXI.
“This is a development we welcome,” said Duncan. “We can now table our issues for the CEO, which we had hoped to do at the people’s forum.”