The tech industry in South Africa has seen its fair share of fighting talk amid increasing competition – particularly in the mobile space where operators have been particularly busy in lowering voice and data prices in 2012.<\/p>\n
BusinessTech looks at some of the fighting talk that made the headlines in 2012:<\/p>\n
Shameel Joosub<\/strong><\/p>\n In September, the then newly appointed Vodacom Group chief executive officer Shameel Joosub said that Vodacom would stay competitive amid a flurry of voice and data cuts by rival operator Cell C.<\/p>\n \u201cVodacom is not going to roll-over,\u201d Joosub said.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s been a leader in the industry\u2026.he\u2019s a very clever guy, but he has got his work cut out,\u201d Joosub said of Cell C CEO, and former Vodacom CEO, Alan Knott-Craig.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jose Dos Santos<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking at the 2012 MyBroadband Conference in October, Cell C chief commercial officer\u00a0Jose Dos Santos<\/a>\u00a0said that mobile termination rates need to keep coming down to create a more competitive mobile market.<\/p>\n In reference to\u00a0Joosub’s\u00a0intention to take on Cell C in dropping prices, Dos Santos said that nobody\u00a0had stepped into the ring to ring the bell for the fight to start\u2026”so ding ding ding, let the fight begin,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Alec Hogg<\/strong><\/p>\n Alec Hogg<\/a>, founder and CEO of\u00a0Alt-X<\/a>\u00a0listed media group\u00a0Moneyweb<\/a>, announced his rather sudden resignation as an executive director of the\u00a0company in October, following a disagreement with majority shareholders, Caxton.<\/p>\n “It took long enough for me to have progressed through the first three emotional stages of major change. I\u2019m past Anger and Rejection and now at Acceptance. The Commitment stage will come.<\/p>\n “An old friend and successful tech pioneer Derek Kreunen sent me a reminder yesterday of Steve Jobs\u2019s Stanford Commencement Speech.<\/p>\n “We can\u2019t connect the dots going forward, but need to have faith that looking back, they do connect. If there\u2019s one thing I do have it\u2019s Faith. A deep belief that God has a Plan for each of us, and if we leave it to him, the Plan works quicker and better. I\u2019m trying hard to get out of the way.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n John Holdsworth<\/strong><\/p>\n John Holdsworth<\/a>, founder and chief executive of start-up\u00a0AppChat<\/a>, has had a long running dispute with listed firm Reunert which has included numerous court dates.<\/p>\n Holdsworth stepped down as CEO of ECN Telecommunications, just a few months after the company was bought out by Reunert for R171.9 million, to start another venture which Reunert argued successfully, was similar in its product offering, to that \u00a0of\u00a0ECN.<\/p>\n In October however, Holdsworth said that, despite \u201cchallenges along the way\u201d, the company was still eyeing a launch date of February 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had a few challenges along the way, but cowboys don\u2019t cry.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The ICT entrepreneur criticised the current mobile landscape in South Africa for being \u201cas liberal as North Korea\u201d.<\/p>\n Holdsworth claimed that people trusted estate agents more than they did mobile operators. \u201cWe want to take the mobile market and turn it upside down and inside out,\u201d he said, adding that AppChat would aim to offer simple easy to understand mobile plans.<\/p>\n AppChat\u2019s Holdsworth: \u201cCowboys don\u2019t cry\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Knott-Craig has his work cut out: Joosub<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Alec Hogg: Why I resigned \u2013 and the next moves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nRelated articles:<\/strong><\/h3>\n