Two African National Congress (ANC) MPs made strong statements about their own party, the Department of Communications (DOC) and the way forward, during yesterday's communications budget vote.
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications chairman Ismail Vadi and ANC communications committee whip Eric Kholwane alluded to the failure of government's previous policy and stated their party had “not been focusing on the ball”.
At first, Vadi praised newly-appointed communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda and his deputy, Dina Pule, saying they had energised the DOC.
“This bodes well for the broader ICT sector, which for some time has been lacking in overall political and strategic leadership.”
However, he went on to say: “In my past experience with the department, I found it to be administratively tardy. Government policy formulation trailed behind the private and academic sectors and it lacked overall coherence. It was overly concentrated in the hands of the former director-general [Lyndall Shope-Mafole].”
Off-road existence
Vadi said he was pleasantly surprised by the DOC's performance two weeks ago when it submitted its strategic plans and budget to the communications committee. “There was a greater clarity of purpose, better focus and a more incisive statement of strategic objectives.”
Concerns raised by Vadi included that the ICT sector has been in distress for some time and this was shown by the South African Broadcasting Corporation's board debacle and muddled regulatory process at ICASA.
“And so, while telco operators and private shareholders have made super profits and billions more are being spent on urban-based fibre infrastructure, the vast majority of our citizens are left behind on the dirt tracks of the information highway.”
Speaking about the switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasting, Vadi said the timelines were not sustainable as it appeared national signal distributor Sentech would not meet the deadline of 1 November 2011.
He said the DOC would have to embark on a set-top box subsidy scheme for five million households. Vadi noted it would be one of the biggest social help schemes that government will ever embark on.
“The department, which hitherto has no real experience in providing services on such a large scale, has to plan very carefully, as - in a project of this magnitude - failure will be costly,” Vadi said.
Kholwane pointed out that the ICASA funding model would have to be reviewed as the regulator had provided about R1 billion for the National Treasury, yet it had only received just more than R279 million for its budget.
He also questioned why ICASA had done nothing to address the issue of interconnection costs, an acknowledged main contributor to the high costs of telecommunications in the country.
Sharp warning
Kholwane also had some sharp words for ICASA councillors, saying: “The provisions in the ICASA Act... which deal with the assessment and evaluation of the councillors' performance, need to be revoked. We, therefore, appeal to the minister that the process to evaluate these councillors be set in motion as soon as possible.”
He also emphasised the long standing e-rate issue - the declaration that schools are entitled to a 50% discount in connectivity costs - saying the Universal Service and Access Fund should be tapped to finance this.
Kholwane noted that because of Sentech's funding problems, it was unable to roll-out its schools wireless network. He also called for government's fibre-optic operator, Broadband Infraco, to be transferred from the Department of Public Enterprises to the DOC.
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