Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri: Minister with talents of backbencher
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13 April 2009
The reason SA's telecoms sector was put in a blender and flushed down the toilet. |
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When Icasa told former president Thabo Mbeki to his face, and in front of her, that she was the biggest problem it faced, she grinned. Mbeki did nothing
Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, who has died in Pretoria at the age of 71, was in charge of one of the most critically important portfolios in government for the past decade — which, for most of that time, was an unmitigated disaster.
As minister of communications, she ensured that the local industry remained light years behind its international counterparts, with devastating consequences for South Africa’s global competitiveness.
She ignored pleas from analysts, industry players, the industry regulator and even her own predecessor, Jay Naidoo, to liberalise the telecommunications environment in the face of abundant evidence that her stance was crippling the country.
Thanks to her, the Internet, which could have done so much to make South Africa more competitive and attract massive overseas investment — with all that this w...
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