Honourable Speaker
Honourable Cabinet colleagues
Honourable members of Parliament
Captains of industry
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Honourable Speaker and members,
Allow me to join the Minister in paying tribute to the late Comrade Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri who led the Ministry in the past 10 years. Similarly, I would like to also acknowledge my predecessor, Comrade Roy Padayachie, who also served in this portfolio with dedication and passion. Let me also hasten to indicate that similar to these two cadres of our glorious movement, I am committed to serve my country in this portfolio of communications, to the best of my ability.
Honourable Speaker,
This budget vote speech takes tune from the State of the Nation Address delivered by the President of the Republic, Mr Jacob Zuma earlier this month. In his address, our President announced ten key priorities of the Medium Term Strategic Framework in line with the African National Congress (ANC's) election manifesto. In this connection, I will speak of the department’s contribution in our endeavour to achieve these priorities, namely:
* Improving the health and education of all South Africans
* Speeding up growth and transforming the economy to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods
* Strengthening the skills and human resource base
* Pursuing African advancement and enhanced international co-operation.
Honourable Speaker,
President Zuma spoke about interventions to create an enabling environment for investment. The Department of Communications (DoC) contribution to the priority area of economic growth will be to ensure that we accelerate competition of electronic communications services as we increase uptake and usage of information communication technology (ICTs). We note the increased demand for services that will foster growth in the sector. Affordability of services is our primary goal in the development agenda and programme. One of our policy objectives is to lower the cost to communicate.
The DoC acknowledges that Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) needs to be better capacitated to regulate without fear or favour in the interest of the citizens of our country.
Honourable Speaker,
In response to our President's call of ensuring that the training and skills development initiatives in the country respond to needs of the economy, the DoC will lead the skills revolution and massively increase the production of ICT skills through the Meraka e-Skills Institute, Further Education and Training Centres partnering with universities.
Working together with the above mentioned training centres and in partnership with the private sector institutions and relevant Sector Education and Training Authorities, we aim to produce in the medium term roughly up to 10 000 ICT graduates.
Honourable Speaker,
The private sector has an important role to play in these initiatives. We have established an e-skills council to ensure a co-ordinated approach towards ICT skills development. The council will bring together a variety of role players in the private and public sector, academia and civil society, to ensure alignment between the supply and demand of skills. This council has done a lot of work in critically analysing the e-skills challenges in the country and will advise us on how best to tackle the skills development challenge in our sector. This will ensure that we create a pool of employment-ready individuals to meet the skills demands of the ICT industry. Supported by the DoC, the council is developing a toolkit which will inform with accuracy what the skills production should be on an annual basis.
Another initiative is the Meraka e-Skills Institute, an ICT higher education and training institution, which supports and augments other existing initiatives to address the e-skills development challenge. In the third quarter of this year, we will request Cabinet's approval of the business plan in relation to its establishment through the joint economic development and human capital development cluster.
One of our state-owned enterprises which also contribute significantly to skills and human resources development is the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA). Despite the global economic meltdown, NEMISA was able to raise R11 million in revenues through a combination of training as well as content development projects.
In the previous financial year NEMISA surpassed its target of 350 learners by training a total of 648 through fulltime programmes, learnerships and skills programmes delivered as part of strategic alliances. The institute also secured accreditation for five of the six programmes on offer in the areas of graphic design, television and radio production, broadcast engineering as well as end user computing. The animation programme will be finalised before the end of the year.
The department supports NEMISA as it continues to extend the opportunities for training and development to a wider pool of needy and deserving young persons and to secure appropriate mentorship’s for them for this year.
Honourable Speaker,
In line with the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) commitments and in keeping track with the rapid technology development, South Africa is committed to the building of an inclusive and development-oriented information society. Working together with our sister departments, such as education, health, etc. and in understanding that ICTs cut across various areas of our government system, both for data processing and transmission of information, ICTs are indeed an enabler for economic and social development.
Honourable Speaker,
The information society and development plan, as our national e-strategy adopted in 2007, remains one of our blueprints that guide our engagement in the building of an advanced information society.
The continued implementation of this plan will bring along opportunities for creating decent and sustainable jobs, especially targeting our youth through the Youth Information Society and Development (ISAD) programme.
Honourable Speaker,
Let me hasten to indicate that the building of the information society is sharply linked to the accessibility and affordability of critical ICT infrastructure to all citizens. The DoC will upscale the development and placement of e-co-operatives through the Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) development initiatives which are already underway.
Honourable Speaker,
Our focus in this area is to upscale the usage of ICTs by government thereby finding solutions to address health challenges. We will improve service delivery using electronic systems targeting various municipalities in the whole country, this initiative include web development and maintenance by young people in rural municipalities. The DoC will continue to lead our work to connect schools and health centres as well as Thusong Service Centres as part of infrastructure provision through our State Owned Enterprises in underserved areas.
Our objective of transforming and mainstreaming postal services not only as Thusong Post Offices but also as a key player in ICT sector closer to where people live and work will soon be a reality.
Honourable Speaker,
One of our initiatives which we will prioritise in this financial year is to connect education centres through networks provided by various role players in the ICT sector and using various technologies to achieve high impact in education and on the schooling system. In this regard, the Electronic Communication Act of 2005 also makes provision for the e-rate system as the means of promoting connectivity to education and training centres.
Honourable Speaker,
The implementation of the e-rate dispensation will be assisted by the process being undertaken by the Universal Services and Access Agency of South Africa which includes the definition of the universal service and universal access concept.
Honourable Speaker and members,
In line with our commitment to make ICTs relevant to the people and with government’s broader commitment to invest in social and economic infrastructure, the Department of Communications has guaranteed the provisioning of the ICT infrastructure and services towards the country’s successful hosting of the FIFA Confederation Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup.
These guarantees cover the provision of connections between Telkom’s public telecommunications exchanges and the 10 FIFA stadium venues, as well as the International Broadcast Centre (IBC).
This has led to significant investments in ICT infrastructure, which will, in the long run, provide the country with increased bandwidth capacity that will enable advanced ICT services to the public. As demonstrated by the fact that ICT infrastructure is operational at all four of the Confederation Cup Stadium, implementation of the ICT guarantees is on track.
Honourable Speaker,
We will continue our active participation in our sector specific institutions such as the International Telecommunication Union and the Universal Postal Union, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other relevant bodies to advance the interests of the country and the continent.
Honourable Speaker and members,
As chair of Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Minister will lead a delegation to the Ministerial Segment which takes place on 26 June 2009 in Windhoek, Namibia to position our regional agenda. Some of the issues on the agenda include home and away roaming, the harmonization of ICT policies and infrastructure development projects.
Honourable Speaker,
Finally, partnerships are important at both domestic and international levels, and the department will work closely with all stakeholders to effectively implement its programmes.
The portfolio committee on communications has been interacting regularly with the department regarding its work and we look forward to a continuous constructive engagement with our colleagues. The Ministry has also been engaging the state-owned enterprises that report to us and will continue to do so, on a regular basis. The private sector and civil society also are important role players in the work of the department and we look forward to deepening this relationship.
As I conclude, honourable Speaker, provincial and local government spheres are our leading partners in implementing our ICT programmes. The ICT intergovernmental relations forum remains our most important platform of engagement in these two spheres of government as well as the House of Traditional Leaders.
We will be working together with them in the design of provincial ICT strategies, whilst supporting the implementation of provincial growth and development strategies, integrated development plans and rural development strategies.
Our strength lies in the realisation that the whole is greater than its constituent parts. Certainly, working together with our stakeholders, we can do more using ICTs.
I thank you.
