Cellphone users ‘taken for a ride’

JOHANNESBURG – Members of the Right2Know (R2K) campaign say they’ve had enough of what they describe as unaffordable cellphone costs in South Africa.

Scores of people marched through the streets of Sandton on Saturday to voice their concerns.

Protestors waved banners reading “free communication is a democratic right” as they made their way to Cell C’s Sandton offices.

The group have demanded reduced cellphone rates and for a minimum amount of free SMSes, calls and data bundles to be made available to South Africans.

R2K’s Dale McKinley said cellular rates in the country are the sixth highest in the world and consumers were being taken for a ride.
“We want free SMSes because it costs the cellphone companies nothing and they make a 3000% profit [from the service].”
According to R2K’s press release, it costs cellphone companies “about 2.6 cents” per SMS.

The group handed a memorandum of grievances to Cell C.
In June, R2K staged a protest march in Cape Town also calling for more affordable cellphone and internet rates.
The campaign has been instrumental in coordinating efforts to oppose the controversial Protection of State Information Bill.

R2K’s Murray Hunter last year said the group’s next “war” would be against the high cost to communicate in South Africa.
“There are secret pricing structures that seem to have been created by the majority of the cellphone companies. They are essentially completely exploiting poor South Africans and ensuring that they can’t take part in basic democratic processes.”

The organisation was founded in August 2010 to highlight issues around the so-called ‘Secrecy Bill’, which many believed would allow the state to muzzle the media and hide information from the public.

This article was written by Reinart Toerien and published online by Eyewitness News.