While president Jacob Zuma spoke of the future of troubled Eskom, the fate of state-owned enterprises, Sentech and Broadband Infraco, is still murky as he failed to acknowledge the role they play in development.
The president, in his second state of the nation address yesterday, spelt out his plans for the future of the country's power utility. He stated that, as Eskom continues to build additional generation capacity and improve the maintenance of its power stations, government would introduce independent power producers to protect the poor from rising electricity prices.
Zuma also promised reductions in broadband, cellphone, landline and public phone rates. However, he failed to provide any insight into government's plans and the role major entities, such as Sentech, Broadband Infraco and the State IT Agency (SITA) would play.
While the president's mention of ICT in his speech was seen as a good step, industry players note that the president's omission reveals major questions plaguing the industry.
Motse Mfuleni, secretary general of the Black IT Forum, says the president's failure to mention Sentech and SITA reveals gaps in government policies on service delivery and unequal approaches to underperforming units.
“Companies such as Sentech and SITA are key enablers for service delivery. Government must make reference to ICT as an enabler of its focus areas and acknowledge that it forms part of its priority areas,” says Mfuleni.
Analyst at Africa Analysis Dobek Pater notes that the address didn't say anything new and there was no clarification on the role of the troubled Sentech and the part Broadband Infraco would play in service delivery.
Failing agencies
Pater points out that decisions on Broadband Infraco are expected in the next quarter and clarity on what level the state-owned enterprise would operate will only come later.
He notes that decisions need to be made whether the company will operate only in infrastructure, or move into the infrastructure-based services field. Funding is another major issue, he adds. Government still needs to clarify where funding will come from and the actual capacity of its network.
Without any clarification on these issues, the company will most likely be unable to contribute to any price reductions in the market, says Pater.
Issues at signal distributor Sentech also need to be resolved. Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda recently released a task team report on the state of Sentech, which called for an urgent turnaround strategy. The report called the company “weak” and said it was in a financially thorny position.
Pater points out that the company needs to note how it will compete, how much money it will need, where it will be sourced from and how it will provide services.
“Sentech is still a disaster. It has not been allocated any funds apart from the money it received for the digital switchover project. Right now, there is very little clarity on how they will help lower broadband costs and increase access,” says Pater.
Single body
Government has previously struggled with inter-ministerial projects, and Mfuleni and Pater note that ICT projects will only be effective if they're managed through a single, co-ordinated body.
“There is haggling over ICT issues at the moment and the president needs to note these challenges... There needs to be a single entity to co-ordinate all ICT projects and begin to effectively supply converged solutions,” says Mfuleni.
Pater adds that the body should be performance- and business-oriented, have large-scale business experience and have knowledge of how government works.
This would eliminate doubling up and increase synergies to ensure everything was co-ordinated, he notes.
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