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INTRODUCTION

The communications portfolio, comprising postal services, telecommunications and broadcasting, has undergone dramatic changes since 1994, with a significant increase in the number of people who have access to these services.

Our vision is to improve the quality of life of all our people, make South Africa's future generations a knowledge-based society and help create an information economy. This will be achieved by establishing a networked information community to empower the way people work, live and play, and make South Africa globally competitive.

Our goals are

* to establish universal access and service for the whole communications sector:
* to position South Africa as a regional and global hub of communications;
* to create a high-speed broad-band fibre optic backbone that connects every village, town, police station, community centre, clinic and hospital, school and library in our country;
* to create a pool of highly skilled to meet the job demands of the high-tech future we envision;
* to promote public-private sector partnerships in developing the information communications technology future.

In support of these objectives, new policy directives incorporating the principles of international best-practice, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity have been published. Laws putting these policies into practice have been passed by Parliament and implementation begun.

Studies show a direct, positive correlation between communications infrastructure and per capita growth and the old view that communications is the consequence of development has given way to the knowledge that communications is a precondition for its success. We have laid the foundation that will prepare communities around the country to become part of the knowledge economy, and now the focus is moving to building applications that will catapult our country into the 21st Century.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Over the next decade, 30% of the world's economic growth will be driven by information technology, and 40% of new employment will be related to information technology.

Over the past four years, we have laid a firm foundation for South Africa's full participation in the Information economy of the 21st century. A new policy and regulatory framework has clearly repositioned telecommunications to take advantaged of the exponential growth in the sector globally.

Currently,

* South Africa is ranked 23rd in the world in terms of telecommunications and information technology (IT) investment.
* Total IT spending in South Africa moved from $6,4 billion in 1992 to $9,69 billion in 1998.
* IT spending accounts for 6,9% of South Africa GDP, up from 5,4% 5 years ago.
* SA is ranked 4th in the world in terms of networked PC's (after Canada, U.S. & U.K)
* South Africa is ranked 18th in the world in terms of Internet hosts.
* Source: Digital Planet; Global Information Economy study by World Information Technology and Services Alliance.

Telkom SA has been restructured to prepare for competition in an increasingly globalising telecommunications sector. In line with the vision outlined for privatisation of state assets, strategic equity partners have been brought in to strengthen the company's access to management expertise, international best practice and technology. This will facilitate the provision of 3 million new telephone lines over five years.

Prior to 1994, the highest number of new lines installed in any one year was 150 000 and by 1994, only a quarter of all homes in South Africa had telephones.

Today, after more than 1,3 million new connections, 35% of all households are linked to the national telephone system. By the end of the financial year 2001/2002, 75% of all households will have access to a telephone, every village, every town, every school, every clinic, every police station, every post office, every community centre and every library will be connected.

Last year alone, Telkom installed 386 426 new lines, up on the 256 459 lines installed in the 1996/1997 financial year, and significantly up on the high of about 150 000 lines installed in any one year prior to 1994.

By the end of 1999, we will have a digital, fibre-optic, high-speed, broadband backbone connecting every town and city, allowing us to bring the most modern applications of the Internet economy as well as the developmental priorities of Tele-Medicine and distance education to the most remote rural villages. Telkom has already connected 600 schools in disadvantaged areas to the Internet, and aims to connect 2 000 schools this year.

Access to a telephone is not limited to fixed line services. South Africa's cellular market could see many more new users added to the cellular network. In fact, given the explosion of the cellular market that has grown to two million subscribers since the introduction of cellular services in 1994, the process of licensing two additional cellular operators is expected to be completed within the first half of this year.

The establishment of 12 Telecentres by the Universal Service Agency will, in part, allow people in remote areas to have access not only to telephones but also to computer services and the Internet.

Telecommunications in Africa

South Africa's stature in the international telecommunications area has grown, and today, we are spearheading a number of initiatives to develop telecommunications infrastructure in Africa.

As a result of an initiative of African ministers of communication, a roadmap for enabling Africa's launch into the Information Age - called The African Connection - was adopted by 44 countries in August last year.

The five pillars of the strategy outlined in The African Connection are:

* Priority projects
* Regulatory framework
* Human resource development
* Finance and funding
* Developing the Information Society

The African Connection has also been adopted by the Pan African Telecommunications Union as the framework for its five-year work plan. Major organisations such as the World Bank, Development Bank of SA, WorldTel, Africa Development Bank and the private sector are working with a steering committee to finalise a feasibility study which will outline a solid business case for rolling-out telecommunications infrastructure on the continent to the OAU Heads of State meeting in June this year.

BROADCASTING

There has been significant achievements in our goal to free the airwaves, and give our people access to information devoid of state propaganda. Five years ago, the local electronic media comprised the SABC (with 3 television stations and 22 radio stations), independent Radio 702, and the radio stations for homelands in Venda, Transkei, Ciskei and Bophutatswana. Bophutatswana also had a regional TV station (Bop TV) and one pay channel, M-Net.

Today, up to 95% of the people of this country can receive a radio signal from any one of 77 new community radio stations, or one of the 14 new private commercial radio stations. More people can watch television because up to 85% of the population now receives the a television signal, compared to about 70% in 1994. And today, people have the option of four television channels to watch, excluding satellite station DSTV.

The achievements in broadcasting have not only given people access to diversity in the source of the and entertainment, but has also created new entrepreneurs in media. The 6 privatised SABC regional radio stations and 14 new commercial radio stations have created new business opportunities for people who never had access to media ownership in the past.

Diversity in our broadcasting system - supported by the good work done by the Independent Broadcasting Authority - has deepened our democracy, reinforcing participation in democratic process at community, provincial and national levels and ensuring the free-flow of diverse ideas and opinions. Information and knowledge are the guarantees of our freedom, the guarantee of transparency, accessibility, accountability, connectivity, the networking of ideas and people, the vehicle for social transformation.

For the first time in the history of broadcasting in South Africa, we have a broadcasting policy based on universal access, diversity and democratisation of the airwaves, nation building, education and strengthening the moral fibre of society. It is underpinned by Constitutional principles of freedom of expression, equality, language equity, cultural diversity and non-racialism.

POSTAL SERVICES

Universal Service Obligations have been put on the SA Post Office to ensure the provision of a universal service at an affordable price and an acceptable standard of service for all citizens.

In line with this, a total of 1,4 million postal addresses have been commissioned since 1994. 95% of these are in disadvantaged areas. Street delivery has been re-introduced and people living in places like Khayelitsha are now able to fully participate in the economic activity of our country because, for the first time in their lives, they have an address. And therefore can open a bank account on retail credit account.

More than 400 new postal points (whether post offices, retail postal agencies or commercial service centres) have been commissioned since 1994. Some of these are in informal settlements, like the Joe Slovo settlement just outside of Port Elizabeth, while others are in places like Soweto where previously one postal outlet served an average of 140 000 people compared to one for every 26 000 people in Johannesburg.

Delivery targets have been set (with the Post Office aiming to roll out some 4 million new addresses within the next five years); its financial performance has improved (from requiring a subsidy of R408 million in 1994 to a break-even in the next three years) and service standards have improved (in 1994, only 60% of mail was delivered on time, compared to 90 percent in 1998). The introduction soon of a strategic management partner will see the Post Office become a world class operator in a market which is becoming increasingly competitive.

THE MILLENNIUM BUG (Y2K)

South Africa's Y2K readiness programme is on track and by the end of this year, it is anticipated the country will be between 65-70 percent compliant. Mission Critical Systems those that control essential services will be close to full compliance by the end of this year, meaning that the majority of people may only experience minor disruptions in essential services.

Since instituting its Y2K programme in March 1998, South Africa's state of readiness has improved from 18% to 24,3% currently. Government departments and local authorities are around 30% compliant, with the Departments of Correctional Services, Communications, Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Housing having completed their Y2K implementation programmes. The Department of Constitutional Development has completed compliance in its mission critical systems. State-owned companies, including Eskom, Transnet are around 30 percent compliant and Telkom is about 70% compliant. The finance sector as a whole is the most advanced with its Y2K programmes, and is close to 50% compliant.

The priorities for South Africa's Y2K programme this year will be

A considered drive to get government departments and local authorities Y2K ready .In this regard a Y2K Leadership Conference is planned for February 20th in Cape Town at which thousands of local authority leaders and staffers will participate in discussion that will have a nation-wide link-up.

Focus on risk management and contingency planning. The National Y2K Decision-Support Centre will increase monitoring on key infrastructure areas such as electricity, telecommunications, transport and water. A special project team - comprising Y2K risk management committee and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Disaster Management headed up by Minister Valli Moosa - will be drawing up national contingency plans for the whole country.

Focus on inter-regional trading partners.

Increased disclosure of compliance which is considered important to the success of South Africa's Y2K programme.

SA'S INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY

In March last year, Cabinet adopted a broad strategy to develop information communications technology (ICT) in South Africa.

Key elements of the strategy include:

Improving technological capability of government through products like public internet terminals and smartcards;

Improving services offered to citizens by government through Tele-medicine, Tele-Agriculture,
distance education, government services on-line and electronic commerce;

Developing legislation on cyber laws.

Work on this is advanced. A discussion paper on electronic-commerce is expected to be released within the next few months

KHAYELITSHA'S STORY
In 1994, prior to this government taking office, the people of Khayelitsha did not have easy access to telephone. Nor did they have their post delivered to their door. They did not have a community radio station, and many people couldn't afford television sets, and those that did would have found programming which was irrelevant to their life experiences.

Today, Khayelitsha residents can have telephone services directly into their homes thanks to Telkom's aggressive infrastructure delivery programme. Today, Khayelitsha residents can open accounts at department stores because they have physical addresses, and can have their accounts delivered directly to the mailboxes in their yards. Khayelitsha is in the broadcast area of all three of the SABC's television stations and several of its radio stations, and, of course, of the new independent national television stations e-tv. And since 1995, it has had its own community radio station, Radio Zibonele, which broadcasts 19 hours a day in Xhosa.

On the eve of the second democratic elections, Khayelitsha is a community that has been empowered, and their quality of the lives of the people of Khayelitsha has been improved. What this community has been given in less than four years under this government is more than they have been given in 40 years under apartheid rule.

Issued by Ministry for Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting, 8 February 1999
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