Coupons for STB subsidies

Coupons will be given to needy households that qualify for subsidised set-top boxes (STB), which will be required following the country's broadcasting digital migration (BDM).

Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA) CEO Phineas Moleele explained at a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee meeting last week that the model for granting the subsidies involves giving a coupon to the qualifying household and the subsidy is then redeemed by the retailer.

In August, communications minister Roy Padayachie's biggest concern was finalising the subsidy scheme for set-top boxes and sorting out how it will work in reality. Cabinet previously set aside R2.45 billion to subsidise boxes for poor households in SA.

Executive manager for performance management at the agency Thandeka Mngadi said partnerships with the public and private sectors had been established for the delivery of 444 558 STBs during 2011/12.

She added that systems for the administration of the subsidies have been designed.

The R2.45 billion has been made available to subsidise the acquisition of STBs by an estimated five million poor television-owning households during the dual-illumination period.

Some R220 million was made available for the 2011/12 fiscal year, and R9.7 million was allocated to build capacity for BDM. However, the BDM programme is on hold, pending approval of the national strategy, according to Mngadi.

She said during the first quarter of this year, the objectives to develop a communication strategy and plan, a stakeholder engagement plan, an application and verification system, a prototype coupon system and a qualifying means test were achieved.

Committee members expressed concern over the process of identifying households that will qualify for the STB subsidy.

They said the process must include controls to ensure that only needy, poor households benefited and that funds were not wasted.

Shaun Pather, member of the USAASA board, said the agency has developed a means test to determine if a household qualified for the subsidy. An application form has been designed and the broad procedure has been determined.

Moleele said it was anticipated that the number of needy households would increase as many jobs have been lost.

He added that community developers would be used to gather the data on needy households, as the data collected by the South African Social Security Agency was for individuals, rather than households.

The processing of applications will be a major exercise and a number of issues still need to be resolved; for example, whether applicants would have to produce a television licence.

USAASA says its five key projects are the administration of the government subsidies for STBs; a pilot project in the Limpopo province to provide broadband infrastructure; the provision of public access facilities in under-serviced areas; the monitoring and evaluation of the effective utilisation of social appropriation; and policy, strategy and research.

The broadband infrastructure project will be piloted in the Tzaneen area of the Limpopo province.

A budget of R9 million was made available for the project. A workshop had been held with the key stakeholders. However, the project is under review as it had been found that the objectives of the key stakeholders and USAASA were not aligned, said Mngadi.

Democratic Alliance shadow minister of communications Natasha Michael asked if USAASA was engaging with the Independent Communications Authority of SA on local loop unbundling (LLU) in providing broadband infrastructure.

“Very few South Africans currently have access to broadband services. Access to broadband services has to be cheap and universally available to allow the country to achieve its communication goals.”

Pather explained that LLU concerned the unbundling of the copper cable network and this network had not been extended to the under-serviced areas in any event.

LLU would have a marginal impact on the provision of broadband services in rural areas. He added that wireless networks were being looked at for rural areas.

The project to provide new public access facilities in under-serviced areas is also under review. A budget of R19.8 million was made available to provide 20 access centres during the first quarter of this year. Only one centre in the Western Cape was completed.

Pather said an amount of R975 832 had been made available for the monitoring and evaluation project. A list of the ICT impact indicators had been agreed with the key stakeholders.