House Chairperson, hon colleagues, I would like to begin with a tribute to the late former Minister of Communications, Roy Padayachie, who died this past weekend. While I did not know him, my colleagues who previously served on the Communications portfolio committee remember him with affection and respect. Our sympathies go to his family and colleagues who have lost a man of warmth, vision and dedication. The industry saw in him a man who recognised the importance of technology, but he worked for a government that has no clue about the critical role communication plays in economic growth, job creation and the delivery of services in South Africa. If it did, the President would have given it weight in his state of the nation address and ensured it was a key player in the infrastructure development plan. It was barely mentioned.
In the budget, the Department of Communications has been given R290 million less than last year. This at a time when we need to pour at least R90 billion into installing a broadband communications backbone that reaches at the very least into every region and urban hub and village in the country. We have to understand that without a widespread high-speed accessible communication infrastructure, we cannot educate, produce, trade, govern, and deliver services. Communications technology is not a luxury or an afterthought; it is a utility, like water, electricity and roads.
South Africa's communications industry is in desperate need of transformation. It needs to break loose from the stranglehold of a fixed- line monopoly and mobile network duopoly and the lethargic regulatory process. These forces have warped the communications landscape to their own advantage. Bold, swift action is necessary to make the sector more accessible and affordable to new and nimble entrepreneurs. They are keen to build on the opportunities technology offers them. Without their fresh energy, South Africa will fail to fully exploit its full economic and developmental potential.
Communication and information technology should be a liberating force, but this government is too inward-looking to allow that. It has harnessed taxpayer funds to serve the electoral needs of the governing party rather than the nation. The business sector, the critical wealth-generating engine of our nation, comes a poor second to government's social re-engineering agenda.
Government controls too much of the ICT sector. It is the legislator, regulator, wholesaler, retailer and nursemaid to start-up businesses. The idea of liberating the sector from excessive regulation so that business can prosper and create jobs is too abstract a concept. Government wants to be seen to be handing over the pay cheque.
This is in stark contrast to the DA-run Western Cape government. It knows that to be an internationally competitive ecosystem, it must have a leading- edge communication technology infrastructure. It plans within the next two years to implement the largest wireless mesh network in the world, connecting homes and businesses in the industrial development zone on the West Coast, Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain. This will drive economic growth and jobs for all.
The Western Cape plans by 2014 to have all the schools in the province connected to broadband infrastructure. By 2016, every municipality in the province will be connected to a broadband communications backbone.
By working better together, with vision, purpose and energy, the Western Cape government and business sectors will make this province a destination for internationally competitive enterprises to grow and prosper in a connected world. It will be a destination of opportunity.
The Western Cape's target for widely accessible broadband pips to the post by four years that of the national government. If we are lucky, the nation might have 100% broadband infrastructure coverage in place by 2020, but no one is holding their breath. This issue has been tossed back and forth for years. Cabinet approved its Broadband Policy in 2010.
It took another year before a compact on this issue was signed with 30 major players in the ICT industry. Now the department is exploring what broadband infrastructure exists in South Africa and will spend some time finalising the broadband strategy before it is released for further public comment. So the cycle of endless consultation and consensus-seeking goes on and on. Meanwhile, economic opportunities pass this country by and South Africa slips further and further down the global rankings of ICT-empowered nations.
In 2009, the SA National Broadband Forum called on government to make the development of a comprehensive National Broadband Strategy a high priority. If government had acted on its plan, every town and village in South Africa would have broadband access by 2014 - that's two years away. We would have the cheapest broadband access in Africa and lead the continent in terms of broadband penetration, but we are eating the dust of other African countries.
The reasons for our Department of Communications' inertia are many. There has been a succession of disinterested and incapable leadership in both Cabinet and the department. The relevant skills and experience to grapple with complex technical issues are not there, so they busy themselves with easy options. These include ICT skills development, nurturing small and medium enterprises, SMEs, expanding infrastructure to rural government facilities, regional co-operation, digitising cultural heritage, and running emergency call lines. All these may be worthwhile endeavours for nongovernmental organisations, NGOs, or private enterprises but they are not critical to the department's focus. This must urgently give life to the vision that this nation needs fast, accessible, affordable communication infrastructure to help redress the economic and social exclusion that deeply wounded our people in the past.
The hon Minister is new in her job and the sector is giving her time to settle in and get to grips with the enormity and complexity of the sector. She is the third Minister of Communications in as many years, but I hope she has quickly picked up the anger and cynicism among the ICT market players towards her department's inability to shake the sector free of vested interests.
The sector needs to encourage new, dynamic and nimble players who welcome competition to sharpen their game and win new markets. However, government is not listening to them. It was clear at the department's recent ICT colloquium that the event was held to tick the box of public participation as one of the necessary steps in drafting legislation. Participants were given scant warning about the event and little time to become familiar with the necessary documentation to inform the discussions on streamlining South Africa's ICT policy.
Cynicism was there from the start when the assembled panel at the opening session comprised entrenched incumbents who have shaped the current communications environment to their own advantage. I doubt whether many of those who took part, except for the inner circle, expect much that is new and necessary to come from the colloquium. It is likely to be business as usual as the department plays it safe.
Another headache the department has to manage is the SABC. This is a high- profile distraction because of the endemic corruption that festered for years through the ranks of the corporation and the board. I have no doubt that the new management is determined to turn this behemoth around. Its radical surgery and disruption of comfort zones means that this will be a bumpy ride. I wish them well.
However, the SABC's ambitions need to be cut according to its cloth. Treasury has not allocated the SABC all the money it needs to complete its envisioned transformation to digital terrestrial television. So, it must sideline its ambitions to launch 12 new TV channels because the resources are not available. It must focus on getting right its existing commercial channels so that it can regain lost viewers and attract advertising.
These commercial channels must then be sold to help pay off its debts and enable the SABC to focus on its public broadcasting mandate that will mainly be funded by licence fees. Privatising its commercial channels will also help support the diversification of media ownership.
Another drain on the government's resources and its ability to rapidly liberate the communications sector is Telkom. Government is the major shareholder of this entity, which has a hefty R3,5 billion fine hanging over its head because of the anticompetitive behaviour that crippled our communications landscape.
Whatever the details of Telkom's negotiations with KT Corporation, the net result should be that government relinquishes its shareholding and the deal is structured in such a way that South African investors and ICT industry players have a greater stake in what should become a communications infrastructure wholesaler.
It should absorb Broadband Infraco and Sentech, which have done little to deliver affordable communications infrastructure to the nation. The department should also part company with the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa, which should move to the Department of Higher Education and Training. The Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa should be closed down entirely. It has achieved little except to enrich its management, many of whom are being investigated by the Special Investigations Unit. The Presidential National Commission serves no purpose and should be closed immediately. The .za domain name authority should revert to the private sector and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa should be an independent, self-funding body.
This should free up the department to concentrate on its key mandate of developing policies that open up the market to a diversity of players, large and small; ensure easily accessible and affordable communications infrastructure nationwide; regulate for a dynamic and flexible environment that is technology-independent; and safeguard the industry against monopolistic tendencies.
South African ICT entrepreneurs are desperate for the opportunity to exploit the potential of communications technology. It needs bold, driven leadership to open up these opportunities for all and let the nation prosper. I challenge you, hon Minister, to break with the past failed record of this department and open up this sector to effective competition. [Applause.]