Hon Deputy Speaker and hon Ndlozi, you will have heard me speak here in this National Assembly about addressing, and in a way, if you can use the type of term that you will use attacking the
monopoly structure of our economy. Breaking up monopolies, the competition law amendments that we have put in place are also aimed at doing precisely that because we have realised and long ago of course that the way our economy is structured and this has also been described by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank, they say one of the big problems in the economy of South Africa is that it's overdominated by monopolies, much more than what they see in other countries.
So, we are acutely aware of that and this is a historical fact. So, we want to address that. Now if you have listened very carefully to Minister Stella Ndabeni Abrahams as she has put forward the proposal or the policy position on the spectrum, you will have heard her say, we are going to allocate a portion of that spectrum to those who were previously disadvantaged. So, there is going to be a portion which is called the worn where there will be opportunities for the smaller and the newly established entities that want to play in the Telecoms space. Now, that has been set aside. But we have also got to realise that those smaller ones will obviously need
funding. They will need money. That's where they will need to be supported greatly. That's why they will be able to have this allocation and be able to go and raise money with it.
At the same time, you have the big four, Telkom, Cell C. Vodacom and MTN. They are all players in this field. You have a number of other subsidiary ones, liquid, whatever and so forth. They are all players in this space.
Therefore, auctioning a portion, hon Ndlozi, if you are still listening, auctioning a portion of that spectrum to those raises money for the fiscus so that the fiscus is then able to utilise that because they in the end are going to participate in this. They are going to make huge investments, which we should welcome. But at the same time, they will be taking part in this auction on conditions that are clearly going to be set out and those are developmental conditions.
Those developmental conditions, because they have the muscle, they have the spread, they are going to mean that they must go and install 4G, 5G capability in the rural
areas and in the townships. So, you want to use the muscle that they have to ensure that you achieve your developmental ends. But at the same time, you also want to get your new players, those who were prevented in the past by a whole number of reasons to participate in the spectrum as well.
The way I see it at the end, even those bigger ones will envy the smaller ones who are going to participate in the set aside that has been put out for the new imaging and the newly established ones. So, I believe that we have a very balanced approach to this. That is an approach that is aimed at further emboldening and further empowering the existing players.
In fact, if you look very closely, hon Ndlozi, this is one of the more effective transformative moves that this government is making on this to ensure that we limit the powers of the monopolies by bringing in more competition. I have spoken in this House before about how the economy of the US grew when they broke up AT&T and make sure that it's broken up to include many other players. That's when the economy of the US took off. Now through this, you are
not going to have four players in the spectrum, you going to have a multiplicity of players. That's something that we should welcome. There is nothing wrong about that.
As to the size that a Vodacom and MTN will have, that's going to be the function of how in the end that process works out. But what we are going to ensure is to ensure that we curb the power and the influence of monopolies and allow our own emerging companies to participate in a much more meaningful way. I want you to pay her attention, even spend time with Minister Stella Ndabeni Abrahams. Go and buy her a coffee. [Laughter.] Have coffee with her and then she will explain all these to you.[Applause.] Thank you very much.