The EFF has become the first South African political party to officially get behind the #DataMustFall camapign.
The party announced its support in a statement posted on its website on Thursday afternoon, saying the campaign was aligned to its resolution as part of economic emancipation for citizens.
“We support this call not only because it is an important campaign, but also because our movement, in its resolutions at the 2014 National People’s
Assembly held in Mangaung, resolved that the high cost of communications in South Africa is impeding on the economic emancipation of our people,” the party said.
The campign gained momentum late yesterday and today, after it topped South African Twitter trends, and got the attention of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee for Telecommunications and Postal Services.
EFF leader Julius Malema, showed his support by retweeting parts of the statement tweeted from the party’s official account.
The move comes as no surprise as the EFF, being a young party, is known to align itself with movements started by young people.
Read the statement’s full text below.
The EFF supports the #DataMustFall campaign initiated by radio personality TBo Touch to hold mobile telephone operators accountable on the high cost of data in this country. We support this call not only because it is an important campaign, but also because our movement, in its resolutions at the 2014 National People’s
Assembly held in Mangaung, resolved that the high cost of communications in South Africa is impeding on the economic emancipation of our people.
South Africa has the most sophisticated machinery and resources in the ICT sector and our mobile telephony operators are ranked some of the best in Africa and the world. Yet with impunity, these service providers are robbing South Africans in broad daylight at the expense of much needed information dissemination and development in general.
South African cellular companies have infiltrated the African market successfully, but because of political will, other countries in Africa are not allowing them to abuse their people like they do South Africans. MTN is a South African company which does business in Nigeria and Kenya. Their tariffs are cheaper in those two countries than they are in South Africa. Vodacom is a South African company with tentacles in Kenya but their tariffs are cheaper in Kenya than in South Africa. Pay-as-you-go data, which is largely used by the poorest of the poor, is more expensive than contract tariffs which are subscribed to by high-end customers
These companies clearly do not have the interests of South Africans at heart, especially the poor masses who could benefit greatly from dissemination of information in health, education and economic matters. ICASA meekly called these companies to account back in 2013, and made resolutions it cannot enforce because it is itself not empowered to decisively enforce corrective measures. Mobile operators themselves undertook resolutions they have not followed through, this because there is no government to hold them accountable. Instead, politicians are eyeing Vodacom shares which have been rumoured to be on the market soon.
We call on ICASA and the Department of Telecommunications to reign in these delinquent mobile operators to lower their tariffs with immediate effect. We warn the mobile operators to meet the 30 days deadline set by the #DataMustFall campaign or face the might of our people. The EFF will join with its full force the masses who will take action against these enemies of our economic emancipation.
Amandla!!
The ANC, DA and all other parties, have not spoken on the matter yet.
