Communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni hopes her department will benefit from the billions of rands inproceeds of the long-awaited high-demand spectrum auction.
Ntshavheni yesterday presented the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa’s (USAASA’s) performance report and non-achievement of targets to the Portfolio Committee on Communications in Parliament.
The minister told the committee that significant events are under way, noting the spectrum auction and legal tussle with Etv regarding digital migration among those.
ICASA’s spectrum auction has so far exceeded government’s R8 billion estimates for the national fiscus, something Ntshavheni pointed out during the briefing to the committee.
“We are hoping with that there will be generosity from the National Treasury on funding some of the programmes of the department, as it has happened in other countries where auctions were undertaken. That there will be a reinvestment in the sector to make sure the sector continues to grow.”
She also addressed the civil society coalition #SaveFreeTV, saying it is peddling misinformation and causing widespread panic in the country.
The civil society campaign claimed that once SA completely migrates from analogue to digital TV viewing, millions of households, including those in marginalised communities, will be disconnected from free-to-air TV, losing access to vital news, information and education.
“There is no need for South Africans to panic; everybody that we've committed to connect by end of March, as the analogue switch-off date has been determined by the minister, will be connected.
“Those that we said we'll connect after the analogue switch-off date, those who have applied after 31 October 2021, we will do so in three to six months of that switch-off. We will endeavour because the numbers are not high to complete that in a shortened period.”
She added that telecoms regulator ICASA and mobile operator Vodacom have joined the litigation in support of her in the legal case against Etv.
Expenditure irregularities
On the issue of USAASA/USAF (Universal Service and Access Fund), Ntshavheni said the state entity did not achieve targets in specific areas, namely broadcast digital migration (BDM), broadband connectivity, and the reduction of wasteful and fruitless expenditure and irregular expenditure.
She slammed USAASA/USAF for irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, saying they deem the state entity’s explanation as to why it did not reduce this as unacceptable.
“On the one hand, they are talking about appointing an investigator,” she said. “Our view is that you reduce those [fruitless and wasteful expenditure] when you want to clear them all, but acquiring new fruitless and wasteful expenditure is the work that you continue to do.
“The explanation that they didn’t want to use an internal auditor because employees were not happy…it’s not the responsibility of employees to decide who investigates; it is the responsibility of management and board as to who investigates. You cannot choose your own investigator.”
Over the years, USAASA, whose mandate is to promote and pursue the goal of providing universal communication access and service, has faced allegations of serious maladministration, unlawful conduct and unlawful expenditure.
Government established USAASA under the Electronic Communications Act to promote the goals of universal access and universal service in the under-serviced areas of South Africa.
The agency’s main focus has been assisting to implement government’s multibillion-rand BDM programme, and rolling out broadband connectivity in strategic areas.
Responding to committee members’ questions, USAASA acting CFO Sidney Mongala said the larger part of the fruitless and wasteful expenditure results from continued payments to service providers and legacy issues.
Mongala explained that based on his analysis, most of the irregularities did not require any further investigation; rather the agency needs to take relevant action against those that have caused fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
He added that of those incidences that have been analysed, his team has indicated what needs to be urgently investigated and finalised.
“The key issue moving forward is… we can see the weaknesses and the poor controls, so we need to make sure we improve our governance frameworks, systems and processes, policies and so forth.
“Generally, we need to make sure we enforce policies and compliance within the relevant systems and processes. Even if we have the policies and so forth, if we don’t make sure we enforce compliance and adherence to those, I think we’ll still have recurrence of this irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.”
A USAASA interim board member concluded: “We are working hand-in-hand with the minister and the department. We have identified our mistakes as USAASA, and the USAASA board, which started in February 2021, is capable of working with the ministry to correct everything that went wrong in USAASA.”
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