Seacom cleared to land in SA

By Damaria Senne for Neotel
Johannesburg, 09 Nov 2007

The Seacom undersea cable is to land in Richard`s Bay, in South Africa.

Neotel has confirmed it will be able to land the Seacom cable in SA, allaying industry fears that government policy could block South African telecoms providers from accessing the alternative to Telkom`s SAT3 cable.

Speaking at a Mail & Guardian business breakfast in Rosebank, this morning, Neotel MD Ajay Pandey said construction work at the landing site in Richard`s Bay has already begun.

The cable is expected to be ready by 2009. Local communications providers will be able to connect from that point to the rest of the country, he added.

In September, communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri announced at the Southern African Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference 2007, held in Mauritius, that cables wanting to land in SA must be majority-owned by South African companies.

She also said such cables must conform to the Nepad (New Partnership for Africa`s Development) principles of non-discriminatory and open access, and comply with national security requirements.

Matsepe-Casaburri was adamant that Seacom`s alliance with Neotel - which means Neotel would own the cable in the territorial waters - was not enough to satisfy the ownership criteria.

Licence conditions

But Pandey said this morning that Neotel is within its rights to land the Seacom cable in SA. "We have had a discussion with government and ICASA [the Independent Communications Authority of SA] and we`re convinced it does not violate our licence conditions [to land the cable].

Pandey would not disclose who the Seacom shareholders are and whether the share ownership meets the South African majority policy as espoused by the minister earlier. However, he said, Seacom shareholders include local and international investors.

Speculation in the market is that Cyril Ramaphosa`s Shanduka Group is one of the leading investors in the Seacom. However, neither Ramaphosa nor Seacom would confirm this.

A Seacom spokesman has previously noted: "Negotiations between us and various African governments are at an advanced stage and we will be making announcements in the near future."

"Part of the reason for the secrecy has to do with the commercial model, but also the fact there is continuing talk that Ramaphosa could be a presidential candidate, even though he has denied it," a source close to Seacom also said.

Pandey added that Neotel`s commitment to Seacom does not mean the second national operator will stop its support of other undersea cable projects. "But we had to move fast [with the Seacom project]. Apart from the SAT3 and SAFE, this is the only cable project running at full speed," he said.

The 1.2 terabit Seacom cable is to link SA with East Africa, as well India, the Middle East and Europe, said Pandey. He added that Neotel has access to Telkom`s landing rights to SAT3 and SAFE.