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Johannesburg - Former Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig says he's concerned with what he terms is the government's interference in the cellphone industry.
Knott-Craig was speaking at the launch of the annual Exclusive Books list at a lavish event in Melrose Arch in Johannesburg on Friday - his biography, Second is Nothing, is a suprise inclusion on the list.
"It's correct to ask: 'Are you guys doing your job properly?' And there are systems in place to check that. But it's not correct to interfere," he told News24.
"The lowering of interconnection fees won't have a huge impact on tariffs. The big boys will be okay, but it's the small players that will get hurt - this will drive some of them to the wall," he added.
He described some of the difficulties and successes of the cellphone industry in South Africa.
"People forget that from 1993 to 2000, the industry operated with no cash - there was no profit and it was difficult operating in an emerging market. Now, we're one of the few countries with an almost 100% penetration of cellphones."
He said that the government's treatment of the industry is a "knee-jerk" reaction, adding that there were many other things that could be done to reduce consumer costs.
"We pay tax on everything in the mobile market. It's one of the most taxed industries in South Africa. A simple way the government can reduce costs is to eliminate some of the taxes that we pay - and that cost could be passed on to the consumer."
- News24