OPINION
Imagine this:
At the end of the month someone from the supermarket where you bought your groceries comes to collect what you haven’t used. They take away all the canned goods in your pantry. They take your pasta packets, your breakfast cereals. But they don’t stop there. They also insist on taking all your foodstuffs in your deep freeze that you haven’t used in the month. Then comes along someone from the liquor store and any alcohol that you have not drunk during the month they take away.
Then they resell all your unused foods and household goods for 100 % or more profit.
We could go on. Perhaps you haven’t slept in your house for a month because you’ve been away. Someone from the furniture company comes along and takes your bed and linen away.
This sounds ludicrous, fanciful.
But when it comes to data operators it’s not. For years they’ve been acting with total impunity. When you buy data from one of these data network operators at the end of the month they take back all data that you haven’t used.
How this has been going on year after year is totally unbelievable.
You have paid for that data. It is yours. You should be able to use it until it is completely finished.
But there hasn’t been massive outrage at this. Grumbling and complaints yes. But not protests.
Until recently. The government has now set rules for these data operators to not confiscate your data at the end of the month.
This new rule comes into effect in 2026. But have you seen any data operators put this into practice? No. They just want to continue milking consumers of data as long as they can.
It’s understandable. These data operators are living the high life. Look at their multi-million rand palatial head offices. Consider the thousands upon thousands of people they employ. All with big fat salaries. Who pays for all of this? It’s you, the data user. You are financing this utter extravagance.
But let’s be clear: Who is actually stealing your data?
I’ve seen some confusion online, with people pointing fingers at ICASA. So let me set the record straight.
ICASA is not the villain here. The regulator does not take your unused data. It does not profit from it. ICASA is funded by licence fees from operators, not by skimming off your leftover megabytes.
The real culprit is your mobile network operator. MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, and Telkom are the ones who built the system that simply deletes your paid-for data at month-end. They designed it that way because expired data is pure profit. Every gigabyte you don’t use is a gigabyte they didn’t have to deliver, while keeping your money.
That’s the rip off they’ve been getting away with.
And no, South Africa isn’t alone – but we’ve been lagging
You might think this happens everywhere. It doesn’t.
Many other countries already have data rollover rules. In places like the EU and several emerging markets, unused data either rolls over automatically or operators must treat it more fairly. ICASA itself has admitted that South Africa’s old rules were out of step with international norms.
So for years, we’ve been putting up with something that consumers elsewhere already refused to tolerate.
So what’s changing? And why the delay?
In January 2026, ICASA finally stepped in. The new rules say that from 23 January 2027, operators must roll over your unused prepaid data at least once. No more automatic confiscation.
But here’s the infuriating part: Why 2027? Why not now?
Because ICASA gave the operators a 12-month grace period to update their billing systems. And the operators, unsurprisingly, are in no hurry. Why would they be? Every month they delay, they pocket millions from unused data.
They could implement this earlier. They have the technical capability. But there’s no commercial incentive. So they hide behind “system upgrades” while continuing to milk you.
Don’t wait for 2027. Complain. Loudly and bitterly. Demand that your operator implements rollover immediately. Contact ICASA and tell them the grace period is an insult to consumers.
Because until we stop grumbling and start protesting, they’ll keep living the high life – on your data.
