Property owners in the close vicinity of the proposed Gautrain railway stations are sitting on hot assets, with prices rising by up to 25% in the past year. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> surveyed a number of real estate agents who operate in the Rosebank, Sandton, Midrand and Rhodesfield areas this week, the majority of whom were overwhelmingly positive that property prices were set to boom.

Poorly written legislation has historically allowed telecoms operators to play the competition authorities off against the communications regulator, creating a regulation void that gives rise to a phenomenon known as forum shopping. The recently promulgated Electronic Communications Act has made the problem worse.

With just over 1 300 days to the World Cup kick-off, there are no signs of development in Bertrams, the run-down suburb adjoining the Ellis Park Stadium that hosts the opening event for 2010. Dilapidated and broken buildings house unemployed South Africans, refugees and illegal immigrants who pay between R200 and R1 000 rent per month, while the street corners are teeming with drug dealers who have been chased from the CBD.

While the global music industry is haemorrhaging and shrinking at alarming rates, South Africa’s music industry is booming — thanks in no small part to the phenomenal performance of locally produced music. On the whole South Africa’s recorded music market grew by 22% last year in the number of units sold.

Regulator Icasa, Cell-C, second network operator Neotel and the country’s internet service providers are putting new energy into tackling the interconnect regime that rakes in R5-billion to R6-billion a year each for cellphone giants Vodacom and MTN. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and most of these smaller telecommunications players support a new regime where interconnection fees will be charged at cost.