The first word The Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development – or PIAC to civvies – leaves me with the uncomfortable feeling that I`m missing something. The post-summit sentiment of vendors that contributed to President Thabo Mbeki`s recent rally of executive pronouncements on the state of, mostly, ICT access in the country, are curiously warm. Or maybe it`s not that curious. Most people will accept that any progress in government circles, in understanding and committing to changing the state of high-priced, under-supplied bandwidth, as well as countless other lapses in introducing competition or bridging the digital divide, is good progress.

But let`s look at those pronouncements: “The SNO needs to be operational soon to address the high price of telecoms.” “In some countries, telecoms costs are lower than in South Africa.” “Technology must be affordable to poor communities in rural areas.” These are blindingly obvious things to say for the executive of a country in more trouble than it needs to be. Mbeki`s words are also hugely delayed and guilty of enormous understatement.

I`m always amazed at the mainstream media`s readiness to give airtime or column centimetres on expensive paper to government ministers extending their sympathies to the bereaved or “reject with contempt” some perfectly plausible allegation without going into the merits, or damning some independently damnable thing. Now, with PIAC all over the media, this naivety has entered otherwise solid business journals.

What adds to my, shall we say, discomfort about the whole affair, is that the meeting featuring report-backs by government ministers, and advice given to SA`s leaders by international vendors over one-and-a-half days, was closed to the media. The press conference afterwards could not have been a candidate for the journalistic hall of fame. Nobody reported on the progress made by government, though we must hear that the vendors in question praised government on its progress in telecoms (which is at best spotty, in my opinion).

Minister Matsepe-Casaburri came a lot closer to saying things that hinted at specificity, for instance “flexible regulations” (but concerning what?), “skills development for the youth” (as opposed to what?), and “wireless broadband”.

With Ivy, you always have to guess at what she`s driving at, so if I leave out whole yawning reaches of what she said, you can be sure the media will be decrypting it ad nauseam over the next few weeks.