The vitality of any country is dependant on it’s ability to connect people, the supply chain – suppliers to retailers to consumers etc.
I believe that this should be governments primary function, the removal of obstacles to each individuals ability to connect to one another. I am going to concentrate on just 2 of the major obstacles I see to this connection and their possible consequences.
Telecommunications
Our ability to talk to one another, communicate on a personal and business level, has a direct impact on our financial and mental wellbeing.
To do business we need to talk to all kinds of people to get a product from concept through design to production and finally into the consumers hands. This can be seen directly in businesses need to “advertise”, tell people about a product. Generally the more people the advertising reaches the greater the cost for that advert.
Telkom, Telscum or Hellkom as it is known, is the handbrake on our capacity to talk and communicate freely. In it’s restriction of bandwidth and cheap services it effectively constricts the flow of vitality to each and every South African.
I personally do not think that any private company should own & monopolise any countries ability to communicate, let alone one I consider to have stolen what in effect belongs to the South African people.
You could say that telecommunications is equivalent to capillaries in the human body transporting oxygen to tissues and removing carbon dioxide
Roads
If Telecom’s is SA’s capillaries, then our roads are the arteries and veins of this great body. The free movement of people and goods is essential to a SA’s wellbeing. Just as oxygen supply to tissues and cells and carbon dioxide removal keeps a body alive so roads move goods to where they are needed.
Poor quality roads with high usage fees, costs each and every one of us in the end. Ultimately the consumer pay’s in the form of higher costs.
We pay a high portion of each litre of petrol in tax, roughly 24% in tax which is supposed to as far as I understand maintain our road infrastructure. Why then do we have the additional load of Toll Roads? Why do we pay twice for such essential services?
Petrol price: 93 Octane (ULP) and 93 Octane (LRP)
Region: Gauteng – 688 :00 c/l – Date: 02 May 2007
Fuel tax 121.000 c/l
Road accident fund 41.500 c/l
Customs and excise 4.00 c/l
Basic price 408.332 c/l
Retail margin 48.00 c/l
Wholesale margin 39.268 c/l
Zone differentials 13.900 c/
Service cost recoveries 7.00 c/l
Slate levy 4.810 c/l
Pipeline Levy: 0.190 c/l
Equalisation fund levy 0.000 c/l