I don't know about you, but I’ve recently had the frightening realisation that we are already about halfway through September – approaching the end of the third quarter of 2012 – and from here it’s a rather short hop to Christmas.

What’s really frightening about this – apart from the usual “where did the time go?” conundrum – is that this has been one of the quietest years for the local ICT sector in recent memory.

It’s really telling that the most exciting news of recent weeks has been the slight controversy surrounding communications minister Dina Pule" rel=tag>Dina Pule’s shoes. The glass slippers in question are in fact a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes that Pule wore to the opening of the slightly controversial inaugural ICT Indaba, held in June.

Thus far, we know that the shoes were bought in February, in Spain, by a man who may or may not be Pule’s boyfriend. What we don’t know is whether prince charming – aka Phosane Mngqibisa – bought the designer footwear with his own pocket money, or whether Mngqibisa used ICT Indaba sponsorship funds, or whether the shoes were paid for by Pule’s fairy godmother.

Mngqibisa’s involvement with the ICT Indaba has raised its own share of little controversies, as his events management company, Khemano, was subcontracted for the indaba. Subsequent media reports said that millions paid in sponsorships by Telkom, MTN and Vodacom were withdrawn by Mngqibisa. Apparently, the amounts involved were not small change either. It has been reported that Vodacom sponsored R5 million, Telkom sponsored R5.7 million and MTN handed over R10 million for the event.

The Democratic Alliance has called on the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, to investigate Pule’s potential conflict of interest, as well as the other alleged irregularities connected to the indaba. MTN revealed that it is investigating the allegations through Werksmans Attorneys.

Unfortunately, neither the minister, nor her department, has much to say about any of this, so we simply don’t know why, what or how. We don’t know why Mngqibisa’s trip to the Mobile World Congress, in Spain, to supposedly do “preparatory work” for the indaba, cost a whopping R100 000. We also don’t know whether Mngqibisa’s company was appointed to do work for the indaba at the behest of Pule.

I wish I could tell something that we did know, but as I mentioned, this year has been slow. Sadly, regarding more important and pressing issues, we similarly can’t tell you where the country’s digital TV migration process is really at, when a national broadband policy will really materialise, or what has happened with the State IT Agency’s turnaround strategy, since a new minister has taken over. Countless other issues remain in limbo.

It seems that mum’s the word as far as government is concerned, because I suspect that many of our leaders are rather preoccupied with the upcoming Mangaung conference, which will determine whose scalp remains intact.

Happy reading!

Martin Czernowalow