By Takura Zhangazha*
Zimbabwe has three mobile telephone companies, namely EconetWireless Zimbabwe , Telecel Zimbabwe and NetOne.
These three companies, in the
last two years have been the key actors in mobile telephony war in
Zimbabwe. It is a war primarily for
primacy in the small but lucrative market for telephony.
The battles were initially about the sharing of onward
transmission towers and inter-connectivity fees. In the last year, these
battles have become more about mobile
cash transactions among themselves as competitors, as well as with orthodox banks
(also known as the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe).In these same said battles,
the overseeing moderator has been the government, primarily through the Postal
and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ).
There have also been uncorroborated whispers in the
corridors of public opinion that the three brothers have been regularly arm
twisted or borderline blackmailed by government, to provide revenue for key
national processes such as the March 2013 constitutional referendum and the
July 2013 general election. This being done, allegedly, in return for license
renewal or some guarantees of lack of further
direct interference in any new products to be placed or already in the
market.
What this all points to already is a potential collusion
between the state and our existing major telecommunications’ companies in order
to protect vested interests, either by way of seeking inadequately budgeted for
functions of the state or protecting the all important and lucrative
telecommunications licenses. In the process, what gets created is a telecommunications
industrial complex (TIC) in a manner
akin to the infamous Military Industrial Complex referred to by former American
President Dwight Eisenhower, post the Second World War. The only difference
with our Zimbabwean context is that we are not reliant on our military for new
technological or war related inventions.
What has however occurred is that our mobile telephone
companies have found themselves closely ensconced with the state in order to
keep making their super profits.
This is not to fault the global notion that companies or
individuals should not be rewarded for either introducing new and progressive
ideas to their given societies. The three
brothers are all within their legal right to do so. The only challenge is that
they may be doing so in collusion with a potentially ‘mafia like’ state and
solely in the ephemeral pursuit of super profits.
In the process, they take on the character of the system
that permits them to operate. They now
know the ‘politics’ of their survival given the general lack of transparency of
the Zimbabwean government where and when it comes to their linkages between
private corporations and state institutions or functions.
This operational framework has been advantageous to them
because our central government is not evidently following developments and new
inventions in the field of information communication technologies. If it does,
it conveniently ignores such knowledge in order to ensure its trump card is
direct control in relation to licensing and borderline economic/profit
blackmail of the existent companies.
Where one looks at the character of the TIC in
Zimbabwe, one would be forgiven for
thinking it is at the pinnacle of invention. The truth of the matter is that it
is more to do with the importation of technology than inventing it. While there is nothing wrong with importation
of technology or innovation, the major issue in Zimbabwe has been its specific
lack of context coupled with its mimicry of its usage in other countries.
Moreover, the
ideological pretext of this importation of technology has been unbridled
capitalism whose functional premise has been lets ‘make the hay while the sun
shines’. Needless to say, it is a sun
that shines only on the commodification of existence, and not on the base and
superstructure effect mobile telephony has had on Zimbabwean culture, political
economy or even the future.
It would not be far from the truth to argue that while our
mobile telephone companies have had the end effect of increasing the right of
all Zimbabweans to receive and impart information, they have not necessarily created a
proportionate amount of jobs let alone offshoot manufacturing industries. The
greater percentage of support services to this sector are outsourced from other
countries. This would include not only
technological knowledge production and innovation, but also things as basic as
the printing of air time top up cards.
Simultaneously, the sector has also sought to swallow
already existent other sectors of the economy such as banking and retail
services. By dint of the same, TIC is
now fast evolving into borderline monopolies in relation to not only dominating
mobile banking, but also social service delivery, agriculture and mining. All
by dint of their ability to provide the one service no one else can provide;
mobile communication.
So when the Harare City Council or the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority offer prepaid meters as mechanisms of payment for services, it
not just about their privatization. It is also about the management of the
transaction by a mobile telephone company affiliated or rent paying affiliate, every
time we punch in numbers into a computer box.
Furthermore, apart from the beer brewing monopoly that is
Delta Beverages, TIC has become integral to the survival of the mainstream
print and broadcast media. This has been
through their ability to provide advertising revenue on a phenomenally regular
basis to the extent that they cannot be criticized or rendered directly
publicly accountable. Unless any media house that decides to do so is confident
it can survive the harsh media political economy without TIC’s revenue. (It probably also explains why this blog will
not be re-published in any Zimbabwean mainstream media)
In the final analysis, what we have emerging is more default
and non contextual progress on the ICTs front.
It’s a progress that was initially resisted by central government for
reasons that can be assumed to be the state wanted to be the first to dip into
the ‘kitty’ of ICTs by virtue of monopoly.
It appears to have come to pass that the state has come to a firm
understanding that it does not have to fight for a monopoly. All it has to do
is to make sure the three brothers, in making hay while the sun shines, pay
their dues in regulatory cash and in ‘profit certainty’ kind.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment