Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, colleagues, the director-general and all other state entities and their leaders, on behalf of Cope, I firstly want to express our deepest sympathy to the family of the former Minister of Communications, the late Mr Roy Padayachie. May his soul rest in peace. May his family find solace in the thought that he served his country with dedication and passion. Our condolences are also conveyed to the ANC.
With an approved new departmental structure which, according to the strategic plan, was developed to underpin departmental priorities, Cope hopes to see that the department, together with the regulator and state- owned entities reporting to it, will in the coming year have a meaningful impact on the ICT industry in South Africa.
Chairperson, Cope supports the five overarching strategic goals of the Department of Communications. In order to fulfil this strategic role in our country successfully it is necessary for the department to engage the communications sector in a complete policy review.
South Africa has had no major policy review of telecommunications since the mid-nineties, when it embarked on a major consultative process that resulted in a White Paper on Telecommunications and the consequent Telecommunications Act of 1996. Therefore, Cope supports the intention of the department and the Minister to work towards the development of a White Paper on Communications and only to make minor and technical adjustments to legislation in the interim period.
We have to look at the reality in South Africa today. The exponential growth of ICTs and the impact thereof globally has over the past 15 years created an information revolution. Our country has unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, lost its competitive edge on the African continent as well as amongst middle-income countries globally. Whereas mobile penetration - the Minister has referred to that - in South Africa is estimated to be at more than 100%, we still face serious challenges with regard to universal access and the costs of mobile equipment. This leaves communities underserviced and rural areas still socially and economically marginalised.
One of the most critical areas that requires immediate and focused attention, and some of my colleagues have already referred to it, is affordable broadband connectivity. In this regard, it is a matter of concern that the department has not been able to finalise the National Broadband Implementation Plan which has, amongst others, made it impossible for Sentech to roll out the national broadband network.
The most recent South African ICT sector performance review indicates that South Africa, in terms of broadband access, continues to compare poorly against other lower-middle-income countries and, on our continent, against North African countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and even Mauritius and the Seychelles. Notwithstanding the interconnect price reductions during the past two years, the costs for private subscribers remain far too high, I have to agree with my colleagues. As a result of the premium prices charged for these services, broadband, ADSL and 3G penetration remains very low compared to other middle-income countries.
We will clearly not regain our international ranking as continental leader with the current interconnect arrangement. We will need further regulatory intervention to push down broadband costs. This matter requires priority attention of the Minister, the department and the regulator.
Affordable broadband access holds the key to economic growth, social inclusion and improved education outcomes that our country sorely needs. This is the highway to an information and knowledge society. Successful digital migration is and remains one of the key departmental priorities for the year ahead. However, according to the department's strategic plan it identifies it as a potential risk area.
It seems that there is uncertainty as to whether or not the Department of Communications will have the capacity to meet national and international expectations. We need confirmation from the Minister, today, that this matter will receive her focused attention.
Valuable time was lost during former Minister Nyanda's tenure, with his brief flirtation with the Brazilian and Japanese standards. South Africa cannot default on international agreements and must demonstrate the capacity to manage this process successfully.
As far as expenditure trends in the department are concerned, we have to raise our concern about some of them, with regard to some key strategic programmes, such as information and communications technology, ICT, policy development only spending 44% of its allocated budget and ICT infrastructure development, as the chairperson has already mentioned, spending only 11,5%.
The only programme that achieved more than 70% expenditure is Programme 1: Governance and Administration, which does not augur go well, because with the new organisational structure having been approved by the Department of Public Service and Administration, the head count will increase to 439, from 270 in 2008-09. The fact that the growing bureaucracy will lead to an annual increase in the expenditure on compensation of employees does not mean that there is necessarily success in this sector. Growing expenditure on salaries will not determine the success of the department. Only effective management of certain key strategic programmes will have the desired impact.
Cope is carefully optimistic that the SABC board has resolved the internal squabbles that have plagued the public broadcaster since 2008. The internal politics, no doubt, had a negative impact on sound governance, as well as the financial management of the public broadcaster. Our advice to the SABC board leadership is that they must not allow the governing party's elective conference in Mangaung this year to again destabilise the broadcaster ... [Interjections.] ... and to spill over in board and management differences and squabbles.