Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is shortly to meet her finance colleague Trevor Manuel to discuss further funding for Sentech, the under-financed state wireless broadband parastatal.
Her office says the meeting follows last week's Cabinet meeting where "Cabinet resolved that the Presidency, National Treasury and the Department of Communications (DOC) urgently meet to consider Sentech's funding requirements with a view to expediting the roll-out of the wireless broadband infrastructure".
A statement issued by spokesman Joe Makhafola says the decision "reaffirms ... Matsepe-Casaburri's view that Sentech should receive adequate funding to undertake the necessary capital investments to carry out its strategic national tasks and deliver on its mandate".
"This strategic asset must be funded appropriately to achieve its goals and 2010 obligations," Makhafola adds.
"The said wireless broadband infrastructure is essential for improving broadband capacity and access, particularly for rural communities and public facilities such as schools, clinics, courts, post offices, Thusong Service Centres and other government offices.
"This will significantly improve the lives of millions of South Africans in as far as government services and information and communications technologies for socio-economic development are concerned. This is a step closer for an enabled information society and knowledge economy."
Sentech has been complaining for some years that it is not receiving funding commensurate to the tasks set it by government. But Treasury says this is because the parastatal has in the past failed to present proper business cases supporting the expenditure.
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