SA ICT gets friendly with Cuba

The week was defined by government events that helped the industry get a clearer picture of what`s on the state`s agenda in ICT - beginning with deputy communications minister Roy Padayachie`s visit to Cuba on Monday to explore ICT relationships.

The official line is that Padayachie, accompanied by delegates from Choice Technologies and Telezero, will establish a SA/Cuba ICT Business Forum. It sounds interesting. But one has to ask... why Cuba?

Wednesday brought news that government will soon make several announcements concerning ministerial directives aimed at the ICT industry. Public enterprises minister Alec Erwin promised the announcements will specifically deal with reducing telecoms costs of communications, funding for Sentech`s wireless broadband network, and the conditions for participation in the East African Submarine Cable System.

It sounds interesting. But one has to ask... why Cuba?

Dave Glazier, junior journalist, ITWeb

While we all sit quietly and wait for Erwin`s words to actually be put into practice, a low-profile IT in Government workshop in Limpopo (of all places) generated some interesting findings. Organiser ForgeAhead told ITWeb several government officials have indicated in research interviews that SA needs an ICT minister.

Moving on to a minister that we actually do have: labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana emphasised at a labour law ministerial roundtable event yesterday that government`s Human Resources Committee will look at growing the pool of ICT skills in SA, particularly among the black community.

Telkom still hasn`t fixed all the street distribution cabinets (SDCs) following the recent vandalism. The fixed-line operator says, however, that a mere six out of the 65 SDCs that were damaged in various parts of the country still need to be repaired.

The latest World Competitiveness Report, released on Wednesday, confirmed what we all knew. It ranks SA 59th overall in terms of technology infrastructure, out of 61 participating countries. What`s even worse is that in terms of Internet costs, out of the 61 countries SA trundles in at nothing other than 61^st place.

The SA Revenue Service (SARS) still hasn`t awarded two large tenders, both confirmed to be in the region of R1.5 billion. One of the tenders, termed the customs scanner tender, was supposed to be awarded many weeks ago, causing some to wonder what is causing the delays. SARS told ITWeb there was nothing wrong - it just wants to make sure it is spending our tax money in the best way possible.