The Political Economy of Mobile Telephony in South Africa : MTN, Vodacom and the State

Abstract

Telecommunications are an essential part of the global political economy, and the private telecommunications sector is driving much of the transformation across Africa. Yet the regulatory frameworks governing the relationships between African governments and these corporations remain hazy. Focusing on South Africa’s flagship mobile network operators (MNOs), MTN and Vodacom, this open access book provides unique insights into this thin boundary between corporatism and many African states’ global relationships. Drawing on rich archival research, company data, and reports from the South African parliament and Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Odilile uncovers how information and communications technology (ICT) companies have taken advantage of epoch-shifting periods in South Africa’s history, from the end of the Cold War to the end of Apartheid. In so doing, she sheds new light on the wider issues of the politics of the multinational corporation, of foreign investment, and of state-corporation relations across Africa and beyond. Theebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.