PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO: 926
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 21 AUGUST 2009
QUESTION PAPER NO: 10
DATE OF REPLY: 8 September 2009
Ms J D Kilian (Cope) to ask the Minister of Communications:
(1) What is the current (a) funding and (b) implementation status of
the Dinaledi Schools Project;
(2) whether his department has considered the (a) business plan and
(b) funding models submitted by Sentech for the rollout of the
project; if not, when will the final decisions be made; if so,
what are the outcomes? NW1082E
REPLY:
I have been advised by Sentech as follows:-
1. (a) The current funding for the Dinaledi Schools Project is R500
million, which was allocated as part of the MTEF in October 2007. DoC
requested that the R500 million be directed towards the Dinaledi Schools
project which requires total funding of R3.8 billion.
(b) Due to the fact that Sentech did not receive the required budget,
they did not start with the implementation of the Dinaledi Schools
Project. However, they did undertake the following preparatory work:
i. Confirmed the list of the 500 Dinaledi schools in collaboration with
the Departments of Communications and Education.
ii. With the assistance of DoC e-cadres, Sentech visited the identified
schools to determine the GPS coordinates and determining whether there
were any hospitals, clinics, post offices or Government offices within
the coverage area. This information secured during these visits were
used to plot the coverage and do network prediction.
iii. The equipment from the shortlisted WIMAX equipment vendors was tested
in a live environment.
2) (a&b) My department has considered the the business plan and funding
models submitted by Sentech for the rollout of the project. National
Treasury indicated that it would not be possible to allocate more money
to Sentech for this project. Sentech and the Department agreed that
they will have discussions on various options to roll out this project
with the available budget.