SA, DOC 'walk the walk'

In stark contrast to government's recent low-key focus on ICT, the Department of Communications (DOC) yesterday unveiled a forum tasked with building an inclusive information society and knowledge economy in SA, which will work towards bridging the digital divide.

In a bid to meet the country's World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) commitments, the Information Society and Development (ISAD) Multi-Stakeholder Forum aims to bring together representatives of government, labour, business and civil society.

According to the DOC, the forum is informed by the Information Society and Development Plan, adopted in 2007, and government sees this as a vehicle to ensure the decisions of the WSIS, in Tunis and Geneva, are translated into action.

The ISAD Multi-Stakeholder Forum is chaired by the DOC's acting deputy director-general, Themba Phiri, and was yesterday officially opened by deputy communications minister Dina Pule, at a two-day meeting with stakeholders, in Midrand.

Delivering her keynote address, Pule stated SA recognises that, earlier this month, the African Union Summit of Heads of State adopted the Oliver Tambo declaration. The declaration encourages member states to implement the Africa Action Plan for Information Society and Knowledge Economy. It urges member states to foster public-private partnerships to build ICT backbone infrastructure to connect villages, and education and health centres, among others.

Pule alluded to president Jacob Zuma's recent state of the nation address, which was criticised by the ICT industry for lacking any substantial mention of ICT projects and plans. Similarly, this week's state of the province address, by Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane, failed to make any mention of the province's large ICT projects, or its plans to harness technology as a growth enabler.

However, Pule maintained that Zuma's brief mention of ICT illustrates government's priority to encourage economic growth by reducing the cost to communicate.

“The statement underscores the recognition by government of the central role that ICT, as an economic sector, has come to occupy in the South African economy,” she said.

Pule pointed out that the country's leading cellphone providers have already indicated their intention to reduce interconnection rates, saying that consumers are waiting to see the impact of these decisions on price reductions.

Bowing to intense pressure from government and industry, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C have agreed to slash interconnection from Monday, by 36c a minute, and consumers are hopeful 100% of this reduction will be passed onto them. However, this seems unlikely, as this price drop would wipe billions in revenue off the operators' balance sheets.

Pule also stated that more needs to be done to address the universal access to ICT services to the country's citizens, especially in terms of broadband, which remains largely unaffordable to large sections of the population.

“We are putting in place measures to increase competition in accordance with the Electronic Communications Act. We are finalising the Broadband Policy Framework, which encourages the roll-out of ICT infrastructure and affordable services for the benefit of all South Africans, including those in rural areas,” Pule explained.

Government, said Pule, has identified 12 priority outcomes areas, which are outlined in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework. The DOC's contribution to these priorities includes targets to improve education, through connectivity to educational centres, and healthcare, by connecting health centres to tele-medicine and consulting.

The DOC is also in partnership with the Department of Rural Development and Land reform to implement additional ICT interventions to bring about change and development, in accordance with the Comprehensive Rural Development Strategy.

“The ISAD Plan is our e-strategy blueprints, which guide the implementation programmes and projects for building an inclusive information society,” Pule stated.

She explained that government is also working to exploit the benefits of migration to digital broadcasting, which will also bring a number of valuable dividends. “Sentech is on track with the DTT [digital terrestrial television] infrastructure update to enable commercial launch later this year.”

However, the ailing state signal provider has recently been in the spotlight for not delivering, following a damning report compiled by a ministerial task team that calls for an urgent turnaround strategy to be implemented at the state-owned entity.

Earlier this month, government slashed Sentech's budget, as it had failed to spend R500 million allocated for its broadband network project. National Treasury also noted that about 60% of the country should, by now, have been covered by a digital signal broadcast by Sentech, but this has not happened, as only 33% of the country has been covered.

Pule revealed the ISAD Multi-Stakeholder Forum will focus on five themes: e-government services, e-skills development, information ethics, SMME development, and ICT rural development.

Also speaking at yesterday's event was DOC director-general Mamodupi Mohlala, who stated the DOC believes ICT is the cornerstone for development. The establishment of the ISAD Multi-Stakeholder Forum shows the country not only “talks the talk, but also walks the walk”, she added.

“Africans have missed the industrial revolution, we can't afford to miss the digital revolution,” Mohlala said.