Ikamva National e-Skills Institute (iNeSI) Bill

The Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services invites you to submit written submissions on the Ikamva National e-Skills Institute (iNeSI) Bill 

The Bill aims to:
▪ provide for the promotion of the use of information and communication technologies;
▪ provide for the establishment of iKamva National e-Skills Institute (iNeSI);
▪ provide for the objects and functions of the iNeSI;
▪ provide for the establishment of the ICT (digital skills and multimedia) knowledge production and coordination CoLabs;
▪ provide for the establishment and appointment of the Board of iNeSI;
▪ provide for the term of office and dissolution of the Board of iNeSI;
▪ provide for the remuneration of members of the Board of the iNeSI;
▪ provide for the appointment of the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer;
▪ provide for the disclosure of interest;
▪ provide for the employees of the iNeSI;
▪ provide for the funding of the iNeSI.

Comments can be emailed to Ms H Salie at [email protected] by no later than Tuesday, 12 June 2018.

Enquiries can be directed to sent to Ms H Salie on tel (021) 403 8264 or cell 061 472 9191


Background
The South African government recognises that e-skilling the nation is fundamental to addressing all the major issues it faces and in better positioning itself to be part of the Information Society and Creative Knowledge Economies, commonly named the Knowledge Society. There is widespread acceptance that e-skills (the capacity to use modern ICT devices and applications for work, education, community and personal needs), affect the capacity of a country to address every substantive issue of inequity communities face. This includes a widespread high level of e-social astuteness capacity which will enable all levels of civil society to appropriate modern ICT applications into sustainable local benefit. The 2013 World Economic Forum (WEF), Global IT Report 2014 on e-Readiness, indicates that South Africa dropped in ranking from 47th place in 2007 to 70th position in 2014. Out of 10 components of e-Readiness, the WEF IT Report identified that South Africa lacks in affordability, skills, individual usage, government usage and social impacts when compared to its global counterparts in the medium income group. The lack of coordination and collaboration within and across government departments and state-owned companies in developing and delivering a programme of capacity building has an impact on increased e-skills shortage that hinders investment, socio-economic development and capacity development in the country. This affects the country’s capacity in accelerating e-skills capacity development in underserviced areas in order to make South Africa e-literate by 2030 in line with the National Development Plan. National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) came into being as an institution of education and learning specialising in teaching the production and technical skills applicable on television, and broadcasting industries. This was formed as part of a government initiative in 1998 to train previously disadvantaged individuals, particularly women, to equip them with skills relevant to the significant roles in the broadcasting environment. The e-Skills Institute is a branch within the Department of Communications (‘‘Department’’) which was established to intervene on e-Skills shortage and harness the potential of ICT across the whole country in order to address the major economic challenges by providing strategic direction for advancement of e-Skills to the graduates and society in order to function effectively within the emerging information society, amongst other things. In October 2012, the Department adopted the establishment of iNeSI as a flagship project in an effort to address the e-skill human capacity challenge and e-readiness of the country in collaboration with government, business, education and civil society. The iNeSI is an integration of three ICT skills development related entities, namely the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA); the e-Skills Institute (e-SI) and the Institute for Space and Software Applications (ISSA) which was officially launched by the Department on 21 February 2014.