Right2Know Campaign

#DataMustFall: R2K KZN to protest outside MTN tomorrow!

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R2K KZN will protest outside MTN offices in Umhlanga Drive tomorrow, 03 May 2017 at 10AM.  To mark World Press Freedom day, the Right2Know Campaign calls on all network providers to ensure that the cost of data and airtime is affordable to all people of South Africa.

Our call to bring down the cost of communication is a continuous campaign that is aimed at all networks. Last year on International Right to Know Day, R2K KZN marched to Vodacom and during youth month we will be targeting/marching to Cell C.

Right2Know is a movement centred on freedom of expression and access to information. We are a democratic, activist-driven campaign that aims to ensure the free flow of information necessary to meet people’s social, economic, political and ecological needs and live free from want, in equality and in dignity.

One study of poor rural South Africans found that they had to spend more than a fifth (22%) of their monthly income on communications. In relative terms South Africa has some of the highest data/airtime costs in the world. It is outrageous that in a country where so many struggle to put bread on the table, the telecoms companies are given free rein to rip us off.

Our right to know will remain incomplete if our struggle is limited to securing access to information alone. We must struggle to ensure that information flows across society and that information forms the basis of a social dialogue that deepens our democracy and advances social, economic, and environmental justice. Our right to communicate – to receive and impart information and opinions – is central to our right to know.

Noting:

  • The right to communicate is a basic human right. Section 16.1b of our Bill of Rights gives everyone the freedom to receive or impart information or ideas;

  • For many people our rights only exist on paper, but 82,9% of South Africans have cell phones that could make our right to communicate real;

  • SA has the 6th highest mobile phone charges in the world. Profiteering by the cell phone companies makes communication expensive for the majority of people;

  • The cost of sms is about 2.6c, so companies are making up to 3000% of profit on a sms;

  • Prepaid users are often charged more than contract users, thus deepening inequality in SA;

  • Cellphone services have been privatised. The market is dominated by MTN and Vodacom and they set the terms of trade for the rest of the industry;

  • There is no transparency in the cost of communications, and it is nearly impossible to compare prices of different packages across networks;

OUR DEMANDS:

  • We demand affordable data and airtime for all South Africans.

  • Communications must be universal. Everyone has a right to communications that are available and affordable;

  • All SMS’s should be free as they cost the operators almost nothing to transmit;

  • Everyone should get a free basic amount of airtime and data in the same way that we have free basic water and electricity;

  • ICASA must regulate the cost of airtime and data to stop profiteering;

  • Pre-paid communication users should not cross subsidize post-paid users;

  • Data bundles should not expire if they are unused;

  • Cell phone companies must improve the quality of service, including network outages, dropped calls, calls that don’t connect, and data coverage, etc;

  • The range of numbers that are free to call (like police and ambulance) should be increased to include our children’s schools and hospitals.

PICKET DETAILS:

Date: 03 May 2017

Time: 10:00AM

Venue: MTN Head Office,

Milkwood Office Park, Umhlanga Drive

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