Madam Speaker, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, indeed, it would be important for me to appreciate the well-calculated decision by the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises to ensure that they do refer this matter to the Portfolio Committee on Communications, so that we deal with this matter of the amendment of the Electronic Communications Act accordingly.
When we were debating the second reading of the Infraco Bill, I said - and I will repeat it again today - that across the political spectrum, we are all in agreement that the cost of communication services in this country is too high.
All the stakeholders that appeared before the committee on 31 October 2007, during the public hearings, shared the common objectives of government, that is to expand access to information, communication and technology infrastructure and services and, furthermore, to make strategic interventions in infrastructure investment.
However, we all differed on how government should achieve these objectives. Most of the submissions, with the exception of a few, suggested that normal processes of licensing should be followed. However, we are moving from the premise that indeed government should play an important role in ensuring that we do bring down the costs of telecommunications.
We also acknowledge that some of the presentations were informed by the fact that most of those who made the submissions were against intervention by the state. They suggested an approach where the state does not intervene in this industry.
Of course, they based their argument on the fact that government intervention through Telkom could not yield the expected results and, therefore, government should fold its arms, watch and rely on the goodwill of the market to provide solutions - a fact we disputed and still do even now. Our view is that we should learn from what happened with Telkom and ensure that it does not happen again.
The Bill provides an opportunity for government to intervene on infrastructure investment whenever deemed necessary in order to enable government to address some of the significant challenges, such as improving on government service delivery and supporting the objectives of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA, Asgisa, and to provide the much-needed bandwidth for strategic projects and consumers at large in order to fast-track development.
We should accept that we could not find the logic to limit this intervention only to Infraco, whilst we all agree that ICT, Information and Communication Technology, is a dynamic industry. However, we should note that the current provisions of the principal Act do not cater for the facilitation of strategic intervention by government in the ICT sector, hence the proposed amendments.
In order to ensure that the Minister intervenes in accordance with the strategic objectives, the Minister needs to consult or get Cabinet's approval before initiating and facilitating intervention. This would ensure strategic infrastructure investment and also provide for the framework for the licensing of a public entity by Icasa in terms of chapter 3. Indeed, it is regrettable that my colleague in the Portfolio Committee on Communications thinks that the Minister wants to usurp the powers of Icasa, which is not true. In fact, we confirm that Icasa has to deal with licensing. The Minister provides the framework for licensing so that Icasa could perform its task without any fear or favour.
We should also emphasise the point that during the Infraco debate, we indicated that there is a need for both Ministries to ensure that they develop policy to regulate both Infraco and Sentech, because if they are not regulated, we might find a situation where there are duplications. Linked to that is the matter of scheduling, which Sentech has continuously raised. We think that it is a very important matter that we need to take up.
As I have indicated, we are of the view that as a developmental state, we must intervene. Whatever happened with the Telkom intervention, we must acknowledge and learn from it as we move forward. Since I arrived here, I have heard people talking on this platform, still complaining about the Telkom issue. I wonder when that matter would be left in the past. Maybe at one point, it will be so that we can focus ahead in a manner that would be productive for our society at large.
In conclusion, one would like to extend one's appreciation for the industry on the input it has made during the public hearings, which were robust and challenging. We would also like to extend our appreciation to the state law advisers, committee researchers and the department's officials who have made sure that our work became easier in terms of co-operation and so on. Without any hesitation and doubt, the ANC will support this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]