Ikamva Digital Skills Institute Bill [B 10B – 2018]

The Select Committee on Communications and Public Enterprises invites you to comment on the Ikamva Digital Skills Institute Bill [B 10B – 2018].

The Bill seeks to:
▪provide for the promotion of the development and meaningful use of digital skills;
▪provide for the establishment of the iKamva Digital Skills Institute;
▪provide for the objects and functions of the Institute;
▪provide for the establishment and functions of collaborative laboratories for digital skills knowledge production, training and coordination;
▪ provide for the governance and management arrangements of the institute;

Comments can be emailed to Ms Phumelele Lolly Sibisi at [email protected] by no later than Friday, 8 March 2019

Enquiries can be directed to Ms Phumelele Lolly Sibisi on tel (021) 403 3660 or cell 083 709 8449

Stakeholders interested in making oral submissions are also requested to make a written request or contact our office by no later than Friday, 8 March 2019.


All correspondence should be addressed to Ms Ellen Prins, Chairperson of the Select Committee on Communications and Public Enterprises and marked for the attention of Ms Phumelele Lolly Sibisi

Issued by: Ms Ellen Prins, MP Chairperson of the Select Committee on Communications and Public Enterprises


Background
The South African government recognises that the development of digital skills in the Republic 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 digital skills (the capacity to use modern information and communications technology (‘‘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 2016 World Economic Forum (WEF), Global IT Report 2014 on e-Readiness, indicates that South Africa dropped in ranking from 47th place in 2007 to the 65th position. 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 digital skills shortage that hinders investment, socio-economic development and capacity development in the country. This affects the country’s capacity in accelerating digital skills capacity development in underserviced areas in order to make South Africa e-literate by 2030 in line with the National Development Plan. The 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 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 of Communications (‘‘Department’’) adopted the establishment of the iKamva Digital Skills Institute (‘‘Institute’’) as a flagship project in an effort to address the digital skill human capacity challenge and e-readiness of the country in collaboration with government, business, education and civil society. The Institute is an integration of three ICT skills development related entities, namely, 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.