'Don't blame Sentech'

The Department of Communications (DOC) is not satisfied with Sentech's work, but says the state-owned enterprise (SOE) cannot bear all the blame for its poor performance over the years.

Speaking to ITWeb yesterday, communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda said funding was the biggest barrier and had resulted in the poor service delivery from Sentech.

“We are not satisfied and that is why we have a task team set up to look into how we may improve delivery on Sentech. But not everything can be laid at the door of Sentech, its leaders or the management,” he said.

Nyanda added that the SOE's failure to roll-out broadband infrastructure to Dinaledi schools and its recent exit of the retail broadband market, were both a result of a lack of funding.

“We can't lay the whole blame on them. Sometimes it's just the resources that we have, or the allocations that we have. We may have policies and have plans and intentions, but funding those policies and those intentions become another matter,” he said.

Despite these problems, Nyanda expressed faith in Sentech.

“We intend that Sentech becomes the key provider of infrastructure for telecommunications in rural areas. That is why they were given funds to get infrastructure to provide services to Dinaledi schools and Thusong centres. It's an important entity that has got the capacity and the capability,” he said.

Sentech recently announced its controversial and underperforming retail offerings will be terminated as they proved to be uncompetitive and costly. Citing continued pressure from shareholders, the SOE said it would discontinue its MyWireless, VAS and BizNet services.

The move forms part of Sentech's decision to phase out retail products and concentrate on offering a wholesale broadband network as a common platform for all service providers. The decision was taken in September last year, as government made “a strategic decision to phase out MyWireless” from Sentech's arsenal of products.

“The decision was taken by treasury, not necessarily in accordance with general agreed policy, but because of the lack of funding. We were then asked to stay out and concentrate on wholesale,” Nyanda said.

The operations to be discontinued accounted for the major part of the company's operating loss and resulted in an asset impairment of R46 million.

Earlier this week, answers to parliamentary questions revealed that none of the R500 million earmarked by National Treasury had been spent on building connectivity for the Dinaledi schools project. Sentech has been struggling to find the R3.5 billion it requested for the project for the past two years.

“Yes, nothing has happened because Sentech did not use that money. And it did not use that money, because it felt it could not be put at risk - its reputation could not be put at risk,” he said.

The Dinaledi project consists of high schools, which have been selected to improve mathematics and science pass rates. The schools are supposed to have been connected through a national broadband network that Sentech was supposed to have built.

Nyanda said several options were being considered and sticking to the original plan meant risking a bad report from the auditor-general.

“If you budget for R3.5 billion and you're only given R500 million, you're going to have one or two Dinaledi schools. Whereas the original plan, when we were budgeting, was for 500 schools. Then if you end up with perhaps 500 schools, but with just a computer each, it is a problem. If you are not able to provide the services to operate the equipment you put in those schools, it's a serious problem,” he said.

While the funding was a lot of money from a taxpayers' point of view, from a project point of view it was not adequate for the roll-out, he said.