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19 May 2005

Chairperson
Honourable Members
Ladies and Gentlemen

INTRODUCTION

Today we meet even more aware of the fact that our country still has a lot of wounds to heal; we still have a nation to unite and we still have an economy to put on an even higher growth path so that more people move away from the poverty line; more jobs are created and a better life is achieved for all our people.

This speech is delivered in a new environment as set by the second decade of our democracy, which is the decade of delivery by the State; a state that has become more purposeful and strives to turn ideals, especially those of the Constitution and Freedom Charter, into concrete actions and better socio-economic outcomes.

This calls for drastically improved performance to meet these challenges and needs; calls for effective monitoring and evaluation by and of the State. This Budget Vote speech talks to the delivery of the Department of Communications (DoC) with regard to these national priorities and therefore implementation.

Honourable Members,

Regarding the delivery by the DoC, this Department is charged with leading the development of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in our country, I would like to recall one of our proverbs, which says “Noka e tlatswa ke Dinokana” literally translated as ‘the river is swelled by streams’. This proverb is particularly relevant given that the ICT sector cuts across different sectors thus making it essential for the DoC to work with others to achieve our ICT goals as a country, that is integration and co-ordination.

This year, being the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, our departmental delivery is therefore underpinned by some of the Charter principles such as “South Africa belongs to all of us”, so that as we address issues of access and bridging the digital divide, we indeed work towards ensuring that South Africa belongs to all and not only some of us.

This address is also made in the context of some international events such as World Telecommunications Day – which was celebrated two days ago under the theme “Creating an Equitable Information Society – Time for action” as well as the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Tunis from 16 to 18 November this year.

Chairperson, Honourable members

BRIEF REFLECTION ON 2004/5 DELIVERABLES

Last year our delivery mandate was based on the clarion call made by the President, on four issues that we outlined. One of these was that we intervene in the Second Economy to address its challenges.

We are happy to announce seven Under Serviced Area Licensees (USALs) who will assist in accelerating the development of the economy and the building of the information society in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Free State and North West. Some of these licences are 60 to 70% owned by women and ordinary communities. Fourteen more licences are to be applied for this year in these and other provinces. These licences are expected to improve not only access to ICTs by citizens but also to expand services by government such as health, education, safety, security, welfare, etc.

Further liberalisation of the telecommunications sector is on course since September 2004 through the new directives we issued then aimed at removing the legal requirement for all operators and service providers to use Telkom infrastructure.

Progress has been made with the on the licensing of the Second National Operator (SNO). I am happy to report that the stakeholders are finalising the integration process. The business plan is ready and the shareholders agreement will be completed in the next few days in readiness for licensing by the Regulator. We thank the Regulator, ICASA, for its assistance in proactively advising what needs to be done for them to fast track the process.

The Convergence Bill is currently serving in parliament. Its enactment will place South Africa amongst the world’s leading countries in the development of the Information Society.

In line with government policy, the SABC has already made applications for two regional broadcasting services to meet our provincial and language needs.

After re-positioning itself, the participation of the Post Bank in the Mzanzi Account has been very successful. The Post Bank has already overtaken the four major banks with 152 000 accounts opened, which is 29% of the total market share.

On the ICT Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Charter overwhelming consensus has been reached. The Charter is already in the Cabinet Process for its approval. After approval next week it will be gazetted and a process started that will culminate in the publishing of the Code of Good Practice for the ICT sector.

Madam Speaker, Chairperson

The modernisation of our ICT infrastructure is essential to achieving higher rates of investment in our economy. In my speech last year, I indicated the plan to migrate our broadcasting system from analogue to digital thus enabling us to have a better capacity to provide more diversity of services, especially broadcasting in all our languages, thus ensuring that South Africans are provided with a high degree of local broadcasting content, universal service as well as better and more service offerings.

This migration is complex and has to take into account the technical, economic, and social aspects of moving from one system to another. It also requires agreements on frequency co-ordination between countries and frequency allocations within countries.

Given the fact that the migration of broadcasting systems from analogue to digital will have a far-reaching impact in South Africa and poses many challenges for the broadcasting system as a whole, I hereby announce my intention to establish a Digital Broadcasting Migration Working Group comprised of representatives from the industry, the regulator, consumers, business and government. Inputs to and the report from the Digital Broadcasting Migration Working Group will culminate in a national sStrategy for the migration of broadcasting systems from analogue to digital. Its composition and Terms of Reference will be announced in June 2005.

Honourable Members

The take-up of broadband, which can contribute significantly to higher rates of investment, has been relatively slow in South Africa. Like in many countries the world over, even where the infrastructure is available and the cost seemingly affordable, the use for broadband has tended to be sluggish.

For Government affordable access to broadband is also crucial for achieving socio-economic development goals especially for the provision of public services such as e-learning, e-health and e-government. Accordingly my department is leading other relevant departments to address the question of increasing both the affordable access to and use of broadband.

Madam Speaker

Increasing the competitiveness of the South African economy involves, among others, lowering the cost to communicate. In view of the President’s directive to make South Africa more competitive and investor-friendly by reducing the cost of doing business and that, affordability of telecommunications by the general public has also been identified as an important element. In order to address this, the DoC is leading work aimed at developing new policy directives focused on these matters.

The availability of a broad ICT skills base is another pre-requisite for the competitiveness of any economy in today’s increasingly globalising world. In this context, the principle embodied in the Freedom Charter, which states that “the doors of learning and culture shall be opened”, could not be more relevant.

I am pleased to report that, two days ago, I launched the African Advanced Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (AAIICT), to be known as the Meraka Institute. This institute will focus on technology research, applications innovation and human capital development.

The Meraka Institute will incorporate some elements of the Institute for Satellite and Software Applications (ISSA) and the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA). Research embarked upon will also include a focus on affordable universal design technologies that address the needs of differently-abled people as a norm, not an exception.

In addition we will be working in partnership with the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the sector education training authorities (SETAs) to increase learnership programmes in the ICT sector.

Madame Speaker and Honourable Members

This year we, in line with the spirit of and the Theme of World Telecommunications Day, will work towards achieving not only higher rates of investment in the economy but also higher rates of participation of all sections of our population in the economic growth thus making it possible to ensure that “the People shall share in the country’s wealth”.

One of the biggest challenges we face as a country is to broaden participation in the economy so that all shall share in the country’s wealth. The ICT BEE Charter attempts to achieve this.

Despite delays, we have gained experience from our democratic negotiations since 1990 and successfully negotiated the BEE Charter for the ICT sector in an inclusive and participatory manner.

We thank the dti for the codes, which outline guidelines and standards on the implementation of BEE.

In taking our charter process toward the code of good practice, we will:

a) Dialogue with social partners, especially the Ministry of Labour, to discuss the changing nature of the sector and find appropriate sector strategies to meet the new challenges that our economy faces especially regarding the re-skilling and reorganisation of labour. We plan to do this via one-to-one discussion with sub-sectors of unions e.g. postal, broadcast and telecoms workers and through sector summits.

b) Dialogue with progressive micro-finance institutions to ensure not only micro-finance access to the poor, but also reducing cost of access to services, and transactional costs through use of the wide network of SAPO/Post Bank infrastructure, its modernisation for online business and expansion of that network especially into the second economy. In this regard we intend to work with other departments such as the dti, Agriculture, Justice and Social Welfare in matters such as consumer protection, delivery of government services and products, because affordable finance is a key constraint for micro enterprises survival. Hopefully we can achieve maximisation of the Apex Fund, Mafisa Agricultural Scheme, maintenance payments and other social grants delivered to those who need them most.

Honourable Members

This year in particular, the capacity of the State to deliver on its mandate is receiving long overdue attention from government. We therefore plan to:

* support implementation of e-government with DPSA
* work with Department of Provincial and Local Government and Department of Public Service and Administration in order to expand the availability of ICTs in the development nodes
* support access to health services and implement the Electronic Patient Records System (EPRS) with the Department of Health, achieving yet another Freedom Charter aspiration – all shall enjoy equal human rights.

We have completed the restructuring of the department to improve its capacity. This process was used to transform the department in terms of race and gender as well as to strengthen its technical and managerial capacity. This has led to improved coordination within and between departments as well as with SOEs. In this regard the Doc has invited the ICT SOEs and other government departments to a joint strategic planning session in order to ensure the alignment of service delivery with the government Programme of Action – a first of its kind, further lending meaning to the expression “Noka e tlatswa ke dinokana”.

The strengthening of sector regulators is one of the areas that have been identified as a priority by government. In this regard the ICASA Act is being amended to make the regulator more responsive to the needs of and developments in the ICT sector. This includes the transfer of the postal regulator from the department to ICASA. In view of envisaged increased responsibilities of the regulator and its competition with industry for a limited pool of highly skilled staff, the funding of the regulator is now receiving urgent attention.

Our contribution to the Freedom Charter principle of “There shall be peace and Friendship” is to be seen in how we help in building a better world, at home, in Africa and globally.

To anchor our democracy, we have, together with the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), launched the satellite network-based channel to give direct access for community radio stations to parliamentary and government information. This will deepen our democracy as it will provide unmediated information to ordinary people thus giving them a tool to make more informed decisions about their lives.

We are working with other Minister’s on the continent in operationalising the African Union (AU) Technical Committee responsible for ICTs. In July we will be meeting in Abudja, Nigeria, as well as in Botswana in August to prepare common positions for the World Telecommunications Development Conference organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Our NEPAD ICT programme is well advanced. One of our first and most ambitious projects in which we are working with the department of education– the NEPAD e-schools project - managed under the NEPAD e-Africa Commission has been launched. Six South African schools will be participating as part of the first phase of 15 countries. It gives me great pleasure to report that this project has been nominated as a finalist for the awards due to be given by the Intelligent Community Forum next month in recognition of its visionary outlook. I wish to take this opportunity to thank all the companies that are members of the Information Society Partnership for Africa’s Development (ISPAD) for their generous contribution to the demonstration phase of this project, in particular Oracle and HP/ZTE that are leading the South African demonstration.

As far as multi-lateral relations are concerned, we have been participating in the preparations, globally and at the African level, for the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Tunis later this year. My Director-General has been appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, to serve on the Working Group on Internet Governance. This working group, which was established by the Summit in Tunis, is expected to recommend a new, representative and legitimate global governance mechanism for the Internet. In preparation for WSIS, South Africa will be organising a women’s conference on the information society in August. Similar preparatory events will be organised for the youth, children, people with disability and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

SECTOR INITIATIVES

The sector has done much to take pride in. Some such as the Post Office have won national and international awards. They have linked multi-purpose community centres (MPCCs) and schools such as Sentech and MTN. Our companies are responding to the call to invest in the continent. In this regard, Sentech has been acknowledged by the African Union as a strategic resource for the continent. Others, such as CELL C, have exposed young women to the world of work. Yet others such as Telkom and SABC have contributed to professional growth and education of women at high levels in the various aspects of ICTs, in line with our country’s human resource development strategy.

The Post Office has won two awards: The FIFA 2010 Postal Stamp Award as well as the African ICT Achievers Award for the most progressive ICT Company. In addition the post office outlets collected in excess of R1 billion for government retail bonds, an estimated 80% of the total bonds. This confirms the importance of this infrastructure for the modernization, expansion and integration of the Second Economy through the provision of access to financial and other services.

Sentech on the other hand has assisted in connecting over 50 MPCCs and expanding television coverage e.g. in Sipengstad in the North West. It has been requested by the African Union to provide secure telecommunications infrastructure to the African Union Head Quarters and contribute to the Pan African radio and television network. Sentech is working with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Universal Service Agency (USA) to provide bandwidth for under-serviced areas in the Bohlabela/Sekhukhune nodal points for telemedicine testing sites.

MTN has a school connectivity project and 105 multi-media centres were completed in nine provinces. This school project is to be aligned to the NEPAD e-school project we spoke of earlier.

CellC has, to our delight, achieved its licence imposed targets ahead of schedule and continues to expand its successful “Take a Girl Child to Work Day” annual project which is due again next week. A total of 150 000 girls in grades 10, 11 and 12 participated last year and with the dramatic increase in companies that have signed up to participate, even more girls are expected to benefit this year.

We would like to thank the President, Ministers, departments, the private sector and other institutions for their enthusiastic participation in this project, which gives exposure to girls.

Vodacom has been sponsoring young women yearly for the International Women’s Foundation professional growth program at the GIBBS School of business at University of Pretoria.

Telkom has invested more than R40 million in ICT education, training and empowerment, R23m on graduate development and has enabled research for 340 post-graduates at 14 different centres in this way assisted in the country’s Human Resource Development strategy.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) partnered in the training of young women in information technology. The first group of confident young women returned from India and graduated just a few days ago.

We wish to thank all these companies and SOEs for buying into the national aAgenda and rising to the challenges that the development imperatives pose.

Re leboha dinokana tsena tse tlatsang Noka.

NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS

This morning, when I launched the Smart Cape Access project, we opened a new chapter in the lives of many children who would otherwise not have the opportunity to experience the advantages of ICTs. This dream will be made reality by the collaboration between the Universal Service Agency and the City of Cape Town Metro Council in rolling-out ICT infrastructure in public libraries, which are linked to fast speed Internet in Khayelitsha and the Mitchell’s Plain Urban Renewal Nodes.

I am also happy to announce that the DoC has decided to support the Women’s Development Banking (WDB) in their Computer-Based Functional Literacy project. This project, which is collaboration with a similar initiative in India, uses ICTs to enable women to learn how to read in their indigenous languages within a space of a few weeks. This year we have allocated a budget to train about 1335 women in three provinces in Sepedi, Isizulu and Xitsonga. It is intended that the other six indigenous languages will be covered soon after this preliminary phase.

Next year marks 30 years since the introduction of television broadcast in South Africa. The DoC will, in partnership with the department of Arts and Culture and the Golden Plume Awards introduce an annual event to acknowledge the people who have contributed to the development of local broadcasting content.

In line with the government’s programme to introduce Community Development Workers as an important component of public service and the advice by the Presidential International Advisory Council (PIAC), the department is finalising the establishment of similar cadres. These cadres, who will be predominantly drawn from the youth, will focus on building awareness of the potential of ICTs in improving people’s lives and assisting the public to use them. They will be deployed at all centres with ICT facilities, starting with MPCCs, telecentres and post offices equipped with public ICT access, and will be known as eCadres.

I therefore ask you to pass this vote and allow us to proceed with the work.

CONCLUSION

I would like to thank the Portfolio and Select Committees of Parliament and the National Council of Provinces for their keen interest in a sector, whose role and impact has not yet effectively grabbed the awareness of all of our people. My sincere thanks to my Deputy Minister, who has added strategic thinking, political leadership strength and regular hands-on advice to improve the effectiveness of our department.

My sincere thanks go to my new Director-General, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, for the intellectual rigour, strategic leadership, passion for the sector and dedication to inclusivity and coordination of government work.

My thanks also go to Ministry as well as department management and staff for weathering the storms of restructuring and for their diligence and hard work towards achieving our governmental goals.

As we go forward, I hope you will continue to be one of the many streams – “Dinokana tse Tlatsang Noka” to give this nation the ability to overcome the cruelty of the past, meet our present challenges and achieve our future aspirations.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Communications
19 May 2005