Job hopping along

This week saw the release of ITWeb's ninth annual IT salary survey, at a breakfast event in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Perhaps the main finding of the 3 400-sample survey was that the ICT skills shortage in SA is encouraging job-hopping among employees. It found 52% of respondents have applied for a new job within the last year and companies are finding it harder to retain IT employees.

More findings from the survey are available here.

We closed the news week last Friday with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) voicing its concern that Altech's two recent BEE deals are not broad-based.

"This appears to be yet another example of narrow-based empowerment, with absolutely nothing done to benefit the workers or the communities in which the company operates," said Cosatu's Patrick Craven.

Meanwhile, Altech this week reported revenue growth of 12%, reaching R6.78 billion for the year to end February 2007. This good form is also welcome news for shareholders, who will get a dividend of 240c per share - bringing the full-year dividend to 340c.

We also reported on Friday that Cabinet had approved the establishment of the Broadband Infrastructure Company (Infraco) as a state-owned enterprise.

VANS players in particular seem to be getting increasingly irate with Telkom's tactics that continue to delay VOIP.

Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb

A Parliamentary statement says the Broadband Infrastructure Company Bill, which is expected to provide the framework for the existence and operation of Infraco, will be tabled in Parliament during the 2007 session.

Those within the telecoms industry, and VANS players in particular, seem to be getting increasingly irate with Telkom's tactics that continue to delay the availability of true voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) offerings.

Telkom's delays in lodging VOIP termination tariffs with the regulator have meant no calls from Telkom's PSTN can be terminated onto VOIP networks, despite numbering blocks being allocated to network providers many months ago.

A large legal claim from Umthunzi Telecoms, against state transport utility Transnet (and the government), will not be settled out of court.

This is the word from Transnet, which tells ITWeb it is its intention to "vigorously defend this legal action". Umthunzi is suing for more than R2 billion over a soured MTN share deal of three years ago.

Home Affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula announced yesterday that government is setting aside about 35 000 work permits for skilled foreigners to contribute to the growth of the South African economy.

However, none of the 53 "scarce" categories are in the ICT sector. Mapisa-Nqakula said the matter was still under discussion at the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa).