Minister of Communications Ms Dina Pule has instructed the chairpersons, chief executives, chief operating officers of State-Owned Companies (SOC) that report to her to meet with her at least once a month to update her on the progress made in the policy commitments she announced in her Budget Vote speech in May.
This is a departure from past practice wherein Minister Pule held separate quarterly bilateral meetings with each of the SOCs. These meetings will also serve as a platform to find speedy resolutions to challenges that the SOCs face. This leadership team will be bolstered by specialists within the portfolio who would be required to address specific issues that would be addressed by the meeting.
"I decided to streamline how I relate to the SOCs to ensure that, as a department, we improve the quality of service we deliver to our citizens. On the evidence from my revised engagements with the SOCs, I'm confident we shall meet all the goals we have set ourselves," says Minister Pule.
Minister Pule held two multilateral meetings with the leadership teams of the Independent Communications Regulator of SA (ICASA), the SABC, Sentech, the SA Post Office, Universal Service and Access Agency of SA and the eSkills Institute this past week.
The discussions and outcomes centred on the following;
Cost to communicate
The department is working closely with ICASA on lowering the cost to communicate. ICASA is currently busy with a broadband market study to, amongst others, determine areas of intervention to lower costs.
ICASA has committed to engage in a public consultation process on the lowering of the cost to communicate programme over the next six months. ICASA is scheduled to announce its plans later this week.
Minister Pule will soon announce additional details about the country's journey towards more transparent pricing on ICT services, and measures to be undertaken to achieve competitive broadcasting industry, particularly focusing on premium content. Consultations between the Department and ICASA on these matters are underway.
Digital Terrestrial Television
Public Awareness and Education
Minister Pule is pleased with the progress made by Sentech, SABC, SA Post Office, the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa.
She has instructed all the institutions in her portfolio to increase their public awareness campaign from this month. The public awareness and education campaign will be targeting key stakeholders and institutions and its intensity is being increased as South Africa enters the final strait on her readiness to meet the International Telecommunication Union's deadline of 17 June 2015.
Sentech has developed a web-based Coverage Information System as an additional tool in the DTT public awareness and education campaign. Sentech has already mapped the location of all Post Offices into the system and is now incorporating contact details of the other stakeholders involved in the rollout of DTT.
The system will enable South Africans to use their location data or address information to find current and final DTT/DTH coverage, DTT service providers such as post offices, installers and retail shops nearest to where they live.
South Africans will also be able to find additional technical information such as the type of aerial required to receive the DTT signal in the area where they live.
Set-Top Box control system
The Minister will soon release a revised draft BDM Policy dealing with the Set-Top-Box Control, inviting stakeholders to make their input on the areas being revised. All stakeholders will be given an opportunity to make input on the changes as per the Minister's pronouncement during the budget vote.
For media enquiries:
Siyabulela Qoza
Cell: 082 898 1657
Email: siya@doc.gov.za
