With 2014 barely off the ground, there are already some signs of distress and discontent coming from the local ICT sector.

Thousands of Telkom workers are facing an uncertain future after the country’s biggest fixed-line operator announced it would be continuing its cost-cutting measures, as it struggles to improve its financial situation.

Telkom last reported flat revenue and normalised operating expenses gained 2.4% in the first six months of the financial year, and stated that it is “always reviewing its business operations with the goal of reducing costs and ultimately developing a more commercially sustainable business”.

In the latest streamlining bid, Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko" rel=tag>Sipho Maseko revealed that he would be seeking to shed some 7 000 employees over the next five years – including as many as 1 000 managers. This would mean that the telecoms group would effectively axe about a third of its 21 000 workers – a move that has drawn fire from labour unions.

Maseko himself concedes that his cost-cutting measures and proposals have been described by some as too aggressive – including the cancellation of bottled water within the company, as well as Christmas lunches. None of this can be good for morale and Telkom is unlikely to be left with very many happy campers, even if it successfully dodges the unions and manages to bring down its salary bill.

However, unions have vowed to fight any effort by Telkom to shed more jobs, after it accepted voluntary retrenchment and early retirement applications from 1 500 staff last year.

While Telkom is expected to meet with the unions within the next few weeks, Maseko’s announcement has upset labour organisations and it is likely that an already fragile relationship could break down even further.

On another less-than-happy note, the ongoing Gauteng e-tolls saga has seen countless motorists expressing dissatisfaction with the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) and the manner in which it has been collecting toll fees.

In addition, Sanral has also drawn fire over various security flaws on its Web site that effectively left motorists’ details exposed and potentially open to abuse. Thus far, aside from patching some of the vulnerabilities, Sanral has largely downplayed the risk and magnitude of the flaws. Let’s hope things improve on that front.

On a more positive side, please enjoy our feature on mobile and cloud predictions for 2014, as well as our cover story that unpacks some of the more interesting technology trends, that emerged at the recent Consumer Electronic Show, that are likely to impact the ICT space this year.

Happy reading!

Martin Czernowalow