The statement from Glocer, in an interview during a brief stop in SA, will add to the pressure on government to inject new energy into sluggish efforts to promote telecommunications competition to avoid missing out on foreign investment.

This also underlines recent research from economist and telecoms consultant Paul Cole, which showed that local consumers were paying 440 times more than they should for voice and data calls.

Glocer said that while Reuters had extensive business interests in Africa and was attracted to SA’s sophisticated financial markets, telecoms services “are far more expensive here, and the available bandwidth is flaky”.

Glocer said if this issue was addressed, it would precipitate far greater investment from Reuters in SA. He said the high cost of telecommunications was an issue that “has to be solved if SA wants to create an economy that is growing”.

Reuters does not disclose separate investment details of its South African business, but it employs about 100 people in SA and last year experienced 15% growth in revenue across Africa.