Right2Know Campaign

By Meshack Mbangula (EEO Chair person)

A meeting was held on the 31-07-2012 at Civicus called by the Right2Know campaign group. It was all about the to free communication and information.

Since our Government is now using the new technology of internet and smart phone. The question is how many of our poor communities can afford the smart phone and computers in addition this technology needs airtime or bundles to be able to communicate or retrieve information.

What transpired is that the  cell phone operators, ,  that is MTN, Vodacom and Cellc are over charging us a lot.  they are not just making profit but super profits. The operators  are supposed  to be charge  us 40cent but they are charging R2.45 a unit. This is way to much. They charge 10 times more than Kenya and 20 times  more then in India while they own the infrastructure. The government regulator of telecommunications  ICASA revealed all this information but  this is not applied by the operators because many of the  share holders in the cell phone companies are party  leaders and government officials. .Its very expensive to be poor  a speaker  at the Right2Know meting , Peter , said t  because the cost of the  ‘sms’ sounds cheap but very expensive because the operators have practically no costs.

Our constitution states very well about our rights, but even Eskom charge you to call the Government.  The Right2Know  proposed campaign is  paving a way for all South africans to stand and act. In  Nigeria communities stopped  using the phones for three days and the impact brought a positive change, We can do the same. Viva R2K Viva.