Sunil Geness, The brand new President and the team
The Programme Director, Mr. Chose Choeu
The CEO of SITA,
Senior Officials from the Department,
The Ministry Staff,
Panellists present,
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
Introduction
I am very delighted to be addressing the Information Technology Association (ITA) of South Africa alongside the Institute of Information Technology Professionals in South Africa (IITPSA).
I was very delighted when they mentioned the venue because I thought I would bring my golf clubs and shorts but to my disappointment I found people with suites. I hope one day I will get a chance to beat some of you at the game.
Today marks the International Day of the Disabled which coincides with the 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children. It is important that as a sector we take part in efforts to eradicate the challenges affecting the most vulnerable sections of our society.
The key question is how we can develop and use information technology to alleviate these challenges and empower these vulnerable sectors of our society within the broader programme of creating an inclusive information society.
As it has been said, we are a new department. President Jacob Zuma on the 25th of May 2014 announced the establishment of the new Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services as a response to the growing telecommunications sector in South Africa worth over 170 billion Rand.
The President directed that we focus on ensuring that we align the sector to South Africa’s developmental agenda by creating a knowledge economy and inclusive information society where Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is a valuable player in the economy.
You play a significant role in the economy. I am very please to meet you as the captains of this important industry. We need to redefine the way we work together. I know that the most of you are there for profit, but you are also very good people.
Our mandate as a department centres on the coordination of all ICT infrastructure programmes to enable access to ICT infrastructure and affordable e-services to all South Africans.
As we coordinate these programmes, we will directly execute the 5th administration’s priority mandate to fight poverty, inequality and unemployment through the creation of decent work opportunities and foster economic growth.
The key challenge for us really is that the President has said that we must achieve growth rates of not less than 5% by 2019. When he was saying that, he was looking at the ICT, Energy, Transport and Water sectors. These are the sectors which have to contribute significantly to the growth of the economy.
The IT industry is growing rapidly and is the key contributor to the overall growth of the South African economy, thereby directly supporting efforts to achieve the 5 percent growth target by 2019.
Your organisations Mr President then must help us track jobs that have been created. Jobs’ tracking is very important to ensure we are able to measure achievements made. If we grow but are not creating any jobs, we are not addressing the key challenges where we have 70% of the youth unemployed.
The ICT sector must help us to track its contributions to the growth of the economy. You must assist us to track the skills development by the sector because most of you are doing your level best, even the small companies, to contribute to the skills revolution of our e-skills. As I said, you are very good people and you also have some contribution to the society through your Corporate Social Investment. It will be important to track progress made and compare improvement from 2013 until 2019 so we can know where we need to strengthen our efforts.
As the ANC government has directed us, we have to work with the private sector. It is the private sector which must drive the economy. Ours is to create an enabling environment through our legislation. We have to find ways of working with you so you are able to invest our economy.
I hope that the association can help us track all these factors as government is using an outcomes approach as we implement programmes. We should ask questions such as: Are we reaching the desired outcomes? Are people now using IT solutions to improve their lives? Have e-business platforms experienced widespread use?
Ladies and g entlemen,
National Integrated ICT Policy Review
We have been engaging in the National Integrated ICT Policy Review process which will create an enabling policy environment for the regulation of the convergence of broadcasting, telecommunications and other media as we align the ICT sector to government’s mandate to deal with poverty, unemployment and inequality.
We are working tirelessly to finalise this review and present a White Paper to Cabinet, hopefully by March 2015.
I know we have setup a deadline for your comments, and I have received many requests to extend the deadline. The initial deadline was the 15th of January 2015. The reasoning has been extra time will be needed for South Africans to give a meaningful input. We have sent out a gazette to extend the deadline to the 30th of January 2015. The document we want to produce must encompass all the necessary inputs from the different stakeholders of the ICT sector.
As you go on your short break, bring along your iPads and Phones. Download the Options Paper and send your inputs so that we meet the deadline of the 30th.
It is necessary that we align and strengthen our ICT policy to speak to integrating the regulation and licensing of this converged environment.
SA Connect: South Africa’s Broadband Policy
SA Connect will facilitate the roll-out of broadband infrastructure to connect all South Africans by 2030 but more importantly the targets for 2019 and 2020. We have to work together in a more harmonious manner to meet these targets.
Universal access to broadband is the key driver of all efforts under SA Connect, as we will ensure that even the most rural of communities have access to broadband. We have been saying that if the fact of Apartheid was bad, the impact of increasing this rural-urban digital divide will be so devastating to our society which comes from this long brutal history of colonialism and Apartheid.
Infrastructure and facility sharing will strengthen our efforts towards Open Access implementation. We have to invest smartly and not duplicate infrastructure everywhere. Our task will be to facilitate the investments at municipal and provincial level and reduce the burden of getting access to infrastructure. Laying down ICT infrastructure is very expensive yet it is never utilised to its optimum capacity. Those who invest in infrastructure must be able to get a return on their investment, but allow others to access this infrastructure on a non-discriminatory basis.
We are moving away from competition on infrastructure to competition on services as we facilitate smarter investment. We expect that the IT sector with its expertise should focus on research and development into new technologies that will underline and underpin on this infrastructure. The ultimate goal is efficient networks to ensure the lowering of costs as we have more than just infrastructure.
We are working much closer with the regulator, ICASA and as we strengthen its regulatory certainty we can take decisions much faster as we facilitate the investment and growth of the ICT sector. We will issue policy directives and ICASA will deal directly with industry. Part of it will be how we deal with the allocation of high demand spectrum and how we use it to fuel this growth that we are talking about.
I have an obligation as per the contractual agreement between myself and the President to finalise and implement the National e-Strategy. You have a significant role to play in this programme and I invite you to engage the departmental officials on how best you can contribute to this effort.
E-government
As we increase demand of ICT’s, government will drive the shift to e-services through the programme of e-government which falls squarely on SITA to implement. We are starting with priority departments such as Education and Health and all those departments which interface with our people whether they be Social Welfare, Transport, Justice or Police. Ultimately as we connect the infrastructure we will change the way we do things.
E-government presents an opportunity for the IT sector to contribute positively to improving service delivery. The e-platforms necessary to deliver e-services can be coordinated between government and the IT sector.
Reducing the cost to communicate
We still maintain that our costs to communicate are still high. This is not a time to argue whether the costs are high or not, but how to move towards reduction of costs so that these services are affordable to all South Africans. We have spoken about Open Access networks, price transparency to protect consumers and bringing new technologies that will have a net reduction of costs.
Cybersecurity
With increased access to broadband, South Africa is at greater risk of cyber crime. Almost two years ago, we established a national framework for cybersecurity. In that framework we committed that we will work with industry as a whole in South Africa to coordinate efforts to fight these ills of cyber crime.
We are accelerating our efforts to establish a cybersecurity hub that will be the centre for coordination of our work between government, the private sector and society in general where we will be sharing information, looking at international trends and what we will do as South Africans to fight cyber crime. I am looking forward that by March 2015 we will have a functional hub with cyber soldiers up to defend South Africa. I know most of those soldiers will come from the IT sector.
We are increasingly becoming a target. We must find the solutions, ways of working with government and empower our law enforcement agencies to deal with cybercrimes.
E-skills
All of these programmes in our mandate require a massive programme to expand South Africa’s ICT skills base. If we are to have South Africans use these technologies they need to have basic skills and uptake of ICT. SMME’s also need to have confidence in using these skills as they are the key drivers of economic development.
We have prioritised the development of e-skills through the iKamva National e-Skills Institute trying to drive this collaboration. iNeSI is coordinating with institutions of higher learning to ensure that all skills development in the ICT sector is accredited. We are encouraged by the efforts of universities and various companies who support iNeSI in its work all over South Africa.
Essentially, we are advocating for the relationship between government and the private sector to be strengthened. Neither of us can fulfil our mandates without cooperation.
Role of the ITA at WTSA
The ITA’s capacity in the development of standards for technology development can provide technical expertise on how South Africa can participate meaningfully in the ITU study groups dealing with standardisation of global technologies. The ITA should work with the department to adopt technology standards through our South African Bureau of Standard and ICASA. Furthermore, we hope to gain from your knowledge in developing country positions for our participation in the global institutions such as the ITU WTSA and WCIT. We will explore forming country delegations with industry participation based on the objective of ensuring effective participation and knowledge contribution.
Transformation of the ICT sector
We urge the IT sector to live up to its pledge as a signatory to the ICT BEE Charter by empowering previously disadvantaged groups. We are running a process to establish the ICT BEE Council by early 2015. Concurrent to this process is the alignment and review of the ICT BEE Charter with the Codes of Practice legislated by the Department of Trade and Industry. Your participation in these processes is encouraged.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Conclusion
I would like to interact with you through this platform more frequently. This platform will enable us to share ideas around our areas of mutual interest as we work towards increasing IT growth prospects, boost job creation and build skills capacity in the ICT sector.
I urge every organisation present today to be an active participant in building a South Africa where our ideals are not just plans on paper, but a reality securing a brighter knowledge economy and information society for the future of our people.
I thank you.
