The turnaround plan implemented by the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA) is beginning to pay off.
This was revealed by the agency's CEO, Zami Nkosi, in an exclusive interview with ITWeb last week.
USAASA is a state-owned entity established through the Electronic Communications Act to ensure "every man, woman and child whether living in the remote areas of the Kalahari or in urban areas of Gauteng can be able to connect, speak, explore and study using ICTs".
The agency previously came under fire for failing to deliver, abuse of funds, low staff morale and high CEO churn, among other issues.
Changing fortunes
To emerge from the quagmire, USAASA implemented a turnaround strategy in 2013 in a bid to change its fortunes.
"The organisation has evolved quite a lot from when I assumed office in 2013," said Nkosi, who previously had a stint as MD of the City of Joburg's waste management service, Pikitup.
"At that time, the agency had just got a qualified audit report that had about a R92 million in irregular expenditure. The agency was not doing the things that it was mandated to do. We had a situation where our employees were not focused, whereby the 19th CEO of the organisation was coming in, in a space of 10 years."
According to Nkosi, there has never been a CEO before that completed his or her tenure. "You can imagine the amount of confusion or instability that was taking place in the agency."
Since the turnaround plan, he noted, the agency has put financial controls in place. "The lack of controls was leading to the abuse and misuse of the agency's funds. Those controls were able to help us to put government structures in place; proper delegation of authority in place; and proper usage of the funds we receive.
"The result was that we got two clean audits for both USAASA and Universal Service and Access Fund in the 2013/14 financial year as well as 2014/15. We are working very hard to maintain the type of performance."
Msinga wastage
Nkosi said prior to his appointment, there had been a project USAASA was implementing at Msinga in KwaZulu-Natal, on which a total of R14 million was spent.
"When we looked at the particular project, we could not see what that money was spent for. However, promises had already been made to the people of Msinga, which is a place that suits our criteria because it is one of the most underserviced areas in SA."
The agency then partnered with MTN for the network upgrade in the area. "When we got to Msinga, the network there was purely 2G and when we left, it had been upgraded to LTE. The people in Msinga are now able to access data services."
He pointed out USAASA also brought WiFi into the classrooms at Msinga and gave the pupils tablet computers as well as smartphones. "Through these, they are now able to connect to the Internet and do their homework. The feedback that we got from the school principals in Msinga was very encouraging."
According to Nkosi, USAASA has also connected 27 clinics in Msinga.
The agency has done similar projects at Emalahleni Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, where it upgraded the telecommunications infrastructure. "We connected over 20 schools, over 50 clinics and trained the users on how to use the technology."
USAASA has also done the same projects at Ratlou Local Municipality in the North West province, as well the Joe Morolong Local Municipality in the Northern Cape. Other areas are Mutale Local Municipality in Limpopo, and the Albert Luthuli Local Municipality in Mpumalanga.
"We believe the agency has seen a model that is working and is acceptable. With this model, funds permitting, access gaps can be closed much quicker than the pace that we used to move at."
USAASA also needed to refocus the interest of its employees, said Nkosi, adding that most of the employees were not technically-equipped. "We undertook an organisational development programme that assisted us to identify the employees' skills so we could use these skills better."
Digital migration
Nkosi is upbeat about USAASA playing a major role in rolling out the R1.4 billion digital migration project.
"The initial set-top boxes were provided and the launch was very successful on the 17th of December 2015. This is the first time in the history of this entity that USAASA will run and manage a project of this magnitude with such a huge budget of about R1.4 billion.
"So in my view, the agency has turned around for the better."
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