Communications, at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Plenipotentiary Conference, Sungate Port Royal Hotel in Antalya, Turkey
9 November 2006
Chairperson,
Honorable Ministers and heads of delegation,
Excellencies,
Dear delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen:
On behalf of the Republic of South Africa, I would like to congratulate you
for your election as the Chairperson of this important conference and express
our delegation's confidence in your leadership in that regard.
We look forward to working with you and hope that this conference will be
one of the historic milestones of our sector.
Chairperson
Following your hosting of the World Radiocommunications Conference and the
World Telecommunications Development Conference in Istanbul, we have become
accustomed to the warm hospitality that is characteristic of the Turkish
people. We thank you.
As we bid farewell to Mr Yoshio Utsumi in his capacity as Secretary-General
of our union, we take this opportunity to express our appreciation for his
committed and enthusiastic service. We wish him well in his future endeavours.
Equally, we express our appreciation to the other elected officials. Our
special appreciation also goes to the personnel and management of the ITU for
their professional service. Our country remains committed to supporting the
creation of a conducive working environment.
Chairperson, since we last met in Marrakech there have been important
developments in our sector as a result of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS).
I would like to recall that it was because of the ITU that we had the summit
which gave the formal recognition to Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) as important tools for socio-economic development. It was also because
of the ITUs experience of working with its sector members that the summit was
envisioned and successfully organised as a multi stakeholder event. Both these
developments were historic.
Chairperson, our sense of commitment to gender equality makes us duty bound
to congratulate countries for the larger numbers of women who are also at high
levels of representation at this conference.
This again is noteworthy since it represents another historic milestone for
this organisation.
Chairperson
Since we last focused on the question of Internet governance in Tunis there
have been developments that require our urgent attention.
Recognising that these developments can not all be resolved at this
conference, we will at this time limit ourselves to recalling and re-iterating
the words of President Mbeki when he addressed the summit in Tunis, on behalf
of the South African government and said, "we welcome and fully support the
agreed position that Internet governance is an essential part of a people
centred, inclusive, development oriented and non-discriminatory information
society." He went on to say, "We commit ourselves to the stability and security
of the Internet as a global facility and to ensuring the requisite legitimacy
of its governance, based on the full participation of all stakeholders."
We only have two more plenipotentiary conferences before we reach the 2015,
the year we set ourselves to reach our Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
targets. The ITU has to be one of the institutions in the forefront of meeting
these targets.
This conference therefore has the responsibility to empower the ITU to play
this role. It is in this light that we look at the proposals on the mandate of
the ITU.
When we next meet in ordinary session of the Plenipotentiary Conference in
2010, it will be the year that our country will be hosting the FIFA World Cup
for the first time in history on African soil.
Chairperson, as many would know this is the largest sports event on earth. I
would like to add that more significantly it is probably the largest event on
earth whose success relies significantly on telecommunications and broadcasting
infrastructure and therefore the importance of the ITU.
In this regard and in line with the developments in the ITU
Radiocommunications sector, our country has started implementing its migration
from analogue to digital television broadcasting.
Moving to digital broadcasting will of course bring better quality viewing
but for us what is more important is that we will have more frequencies freed
up for additional broadcasting channels enabling us to have dedicated channels
to meet our education, health, language and other challenges. We will as a
result also be able to provide additional ICT services to meet our
developmental goals.
In addition to the modern and reliable telecommunications requirements of
the FIFA World Cup, we are proud to announce that South Africa is, with
Australia, one of the remaining two countries that have been shortlisted to
host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
This project, which is in excess of a billion Euros, consists of thousands
of dishes inter-connected through thousands of computers. It will be the
foremost instrument in astronomy and fundamental physics.
The proposed site for this project is in the Northern Cape province, a place
that is mainly a desert. This project to which the country has already
allocated resources is expected to contribute not only to global scientific
work but also to our commitment to reduce poverty and unemployment.
The SKA requires bandwidth in the region of terabits per second. We have
already started with the broadband infrastructure required for this and other
scientific projects that we are involved in.
I am happy to inform you that in collaboration with eight other countries in
east and southern Africa we are signatories to the protocol for the policy and
regulatory framework for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
ICT broadband infrastructure network. The development of this network, the
first of its kind, is based on open and non-discriminatory access as well as
the NEPAD principles of being predominantly African owned and lead.
We take this opportunity to recognise the personal leadership of President
Paul Kagame of Rwanda and thank him for hosting the headquarters of this
important network.
We are also part of the 15 African countries that are implementing the NEPAD
e-schools demo project, another world first. The objective of this project is
to ensure that all 600 000 African schools produce young people who can not
only function in the knowledge economy but also contribute to building an
inclusive information society.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank the ITU for its support to our
country as well as the NEPAD ICT programme.
In July this year our Electronic Communications Act, also known as the
Convergence Act, came into effect thus opening a new era in the history of
telecommunications in our country. Our new Act provides for the convergence of
previously separate and distinct services. We have no doubt that it will afford
our citizens with more services thus contributing to the reduction of the cost
of communications.
We have been honoured to serve on the ITU Council since being a democratic
country. We have given our best in the service of the union in as objective a
manner as our developing country status allows. We are grateful for the
confidence that we have been given to serve and avail ourselves for re-election
to the council one more time for which we ask for your support.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Soweto Youth Uprising, an event
that contributed immensely to our struggle for democracy.
Ours is a young country. A country that takes great pride in the
contribution of its youth to the struggle against apartheid. A country that
therefore recognises the important role that youth can play in the development
of the information society.
It is for this reason that we are proud to be the co-initiators of the now
well-developed ITU Youth Forum which first met in our country. We think that
the time has come for the ITU to find a mechanism for escalating the
involvement of youth in its formal work and look forward to exchanging views
with others on this matter.
We hope to see many of you in South Africa in 2010 but if you can not be
there physically we guarantee that because of the professional work of our own
people in collaboration with the professional staff of the ITU, the world will
be able to see the games clearly and in all of our African colours.
Thank you Chairperson. Thank you all for your kind attention.
Issued by: Department of Communications
9 November 2006
