Department & entities on programmes dealing with Covid-19 related issues; Reconfiguration of Department; with Deputy Minister

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Communications and Digital Technologies

12 May 2020
Chairperson: Mr B Maneli (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Video: Portfolio Committee on Communications, 12 May 2020

The Portfolio Committee was briefed by the newly established Department of Communication and Digital Technologies on the impact which the COVID-19 pandemic had had on its activities.

The Department stressed that COVID-19 had brought about new ways of doing things and that specific interventions had been put in place, such as the issue of an emergency temporary spectrum allocation, which the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) had been able to attend to swiftly. An important development had been the establishment of a project management office, which included State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), stakeholders such as ICASA, agencies and the industry.

Part of the Department’s role was to ensure the smooth operation of the communications industry as an essential service during the disaster period, to impose social compact obligations on licensees to broadcast public service announcements related to COVID-19 and its impact, to enable licensees and other service providers to deploy networks and facilities rapidly, to remove obstacles associated with the rapid deployment, and to establish a coordinating mechanism through which the communication industry service providers could facilitate the provisioning of their services.

Members wanted to know if the reconfiguration of the Department – with the amalgamation of communication and telecommunication – had resulted in a saving of money, and whether any staff members had been retrenched in the process. The delays in implementing the Set-Top Box (STB) project, and the initiatives to introduce Integrated Digital Television (IDTV) came under the spotlight. The Committee was told that ICASA was in the process of taking the SABC channels out of the DSTV bouquet so that they would be available to people who purchased IDTV. Members asked why the Department had not allocated the spectrum earlier, before the roll-out of policies and programmes, and expressed concern that there might not be sufficient spectrum available, given that universities and TVET colleges would now be using it.

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed Ms Pinky Kekana, Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies, and Dr Robert Nkuna, Director-General of the Department.

Before proceeding with the meeting, the Chairperson drew some points from the previous meeting regarding time management, and indicated the agenda of the meeting, which was then adopted by the Committee.

Report on Covid-19 activities and amalgamation of Departments

Ms Kekana said the purpose of the meeting was to give an update on the Covid-19 activities by the Department. The Department had also gone through a process of change and had successfully been transformed into what was now called the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies. The Acting Director-General had been able to move staff into the appropriate positions, which he would address in the presentation.

Ms Kekana underlined that Covid-19 had brought about new ways of doing things and that specific interventions had been in place, such as the issue of temporary spectrum allocation, which ICASA had been able to attend to swiftly. She also commended the Department on how far they have been exposed in as far as connectivity was concerned. She mentioned how inequalities had been shown during this time and how these challenges had presented the Department with the opportunity to reflect on how it prioritised the roll-out the Set Top Boxes (STBs).

Dr Nkuna highlighted some of the important parts of the presentation, which he briefly went through. A project management office had been established, which included state-owned enterprises, stakeholders such as the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), agencies and the industry. He underlined that the report that was being presented was not only that of the Department, but rather the report of the Committee.

Part of the purpose of the Department’s work was to ensure the smooth operation of the communications industry as an essential service during the disaster period, to impose social compact obligations on licensees to broadcast public service announcements related to COVID-19 and its impact, to enable licensees and other service providers to rapidly deploy networks and facilities, remove obstacles associated with the rapid deployment, and to establish a coordinating mechanism through which industry service providers could facilitate the provisioning of the services outlined.

The scope in which the Department would operate would prioritise the dissemination of real-time public information, access to communications infrastructure and digital services, make provision of essential postal services, the tracking and tracing of persons, and support to the key sectors of education, health and local government. These were regulated by clauses 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the Constitution. Dr Nkuna also said that the outcomes of these interventions would ensure the rapid deployment of networks, availability of services, public communication, remote working, government offices and services connectivity, grant disbursement, remote education and tracking and tracing, which the Department had been looking into before recommendation of the regulations.

Information dissemination

Part of clause 5.1.1 in the constitution stated that “Class and Individual Broadcasting Service Licences are required to receive and disseminate public information related to the national effort to combat the spread of Covid-19 in all local languages and sign language”. Dr Nkuna said the progress that had been made regarding this included radio stations broadcasting public service announcements, the Department engaging with the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) on TV and radio public announcements (in all official languages), the DCDT engaging with the Department of Health in assisting with the production of public announcements for the broadcasters, engaging with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to assist with translation services, and the broadcast of public service announcements (PSAs) collectively per province. The final success was ongoing TV and radio broadcasting across official languages, including sign-language on TV, and disseminating Covid-19 related public service announcements as confirmed by ICASA reports.

Communications and digital services

Dr Nkuna reported that as per the clause in section 6, 6.1 of the constitution, where all the service providers of electronic communications networks and services must ensure continued service provision, progress had been made where weekly reports had been submitted by operators and challenges being raised had been addressed. Service providers had also been expected to share network plans weekly, indicating COVID-19 readiness. The final success of this intervention was the confirmation of licencees that their networks were robust enough to cope throughout the disaster period. Other successes included the interventions of the rest of Section 6 (6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6) where the final success was the deployment of rapid communications networks in prioritised sites.

Type approval

Referring to the priorities of Section 7 (7.1, 7.1.1, 7.1.2 and 7.1.3), Dr Nkuna said that the work in progress regarding this intervention involved type approval regulation by the ICASA and approval of the equipment utilised to improve network capacity. The final success in this section was the achievement of the type approval regulation issues by the ICASA, as well as approval of the ICASA regulations equipment used to improve network capacity.

Individual track and trace

Dr Nkuna said that in terms of Section 8, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) continued to update the contact tracing database on receipt of information from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). MNOs also continued to process daily affidavits, and the Department was in alignment with the CSIR team responsible for maintenance and management of the Covid-19 tracing database. One of the great successes highlighted was the MNO providing daily data requests to support the implementation and enhance the contact tracing database and a fully functional contact tracing system.

Support to education

Section 9 emphasised the support of education by the Department, and prioritised electronic communication services’ licences, which it states had to provide zero-rated access to local education content websites, and increase their educational programmes to support awareness of Covid-19. Dr Nkuna reported that the framework to facilitate the zero-rating of sites had been approved, and that it had engaged the community broadcasters to assist with implementing educational and health programming and PSAs. The Department was also working with Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation on the provision of zero-rated websites for universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges. The Department had engaged with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to arrive at a suitable model for implementing schools’ connectivity based on the DBE’s requirements, which had seen an increase in 152 connected district virtual classrooms.

The Department had also been able to assist the Department of Health by ensuring that all SOEs were on board and sharing their available infrastructure capacity, as well as securing funding to connect district virtual services. Section 11.4 stated that the South African Post Office (SAPO) and South African Postbank were responsible for supporting the efforts of the Minister of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) in the implementation of measures to combat the spread of Covid-19, in so far as the payment of social grants was concerned. However, SAPO and the Postbank would effectively support the payment of social grants.

Discussion

Mr C Mackenzie (DA) asked whether the Department had managed to save some money out of the amalgamation of communications and telecommunications, and wanted clarity on where the savings had come from. Had any staff members been retrenched, and what did the staff complement look like? How many people would be retrained, and how many would be let go? He expressed how pleased he was with government for moving at incredible speed in response to the pandemic. He wanted to know why the Department had not allocated the spectrum earlier, before the policies and programmes had been rolled out? His third question focused on the budget, as he wanted to know how the Department anticipated its impact on their activities for this year and next. He shared his concern over the disbursement of grant payments, and asked why the government could not opt for card distribution instead of cash distribution. He also asked about the privacy of people, especially with regard to the tracking of peoples’ movements, and enquired on whether a court order would have to be issued to obtain this. Lastly, he referred to the Covid-19 relief fund, and asked if any of the entities would apply for relief.

Ms Z Majozi (IFP) echoed the sentiments of Mr Mackenzie regarding data and the direction in which the Department had been moving, especially during this pandemic. She asked why there had not been any measures or regulations prior to the pandemic. She also wanted clarity on the presentation regarding the coordination and monitoring of the 900 000 subsidised digital television installations in three provinces -- were they only reporting about the three provinces, or were they about to roll it out in nine provinces, because this would then give an indication of whether rural areas were in need, and which ones had been offered. Echoing the words of Mr Mackenzie again on the budget allocation, she wanted to know how much the Department anticipated would be used. She also wanted to know the measures that had been put in place to make sure that money would not be lost, such as the case of the R2 million loss on storage.

Ms C Faku (ANC) congratulated the Department on its work, and applauded them on the deployment of the STBs. She acknowledged that there had been challenges with the payment of social grants but that there had been improvements over time, and that the presentation had presented different strategies and included rural areas. She also emphasised that there was a need for time frames.

Mr L Molala (ANC) referred to the issues raised by the DG, and requested that he discuss at least three of them and give timeframes when these would happen. He also requested that the DG discuss the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA). He asked about the availability of cell phones and whether research had been conducted in order to find out how many students had access to cell phones, including those from rural areas. He also asked the DG to indicate the state of SAPO now.

DCDT’s response

The Deputy Minister referred to the matter of vacancies in the South African Post Office (SAPO), emphasising that part of it was to make sure that the resignation of board members did not affect the governance and the running of the entity at the governance level. It was one of the issues that the Acting Minister and the Director General were looking at, and which the Department would be dealing with.

Although there were challenges, there were some areas that looked promising, such as the launch of cashless Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), in collaboration with legally registered spaza shops in municipalities. It was also part of SAPO, to enhance their revenue stream. She agreed that Ms Faku had raised a valid issue on digital terrestrial television (DTT). Although there were challenges with certain set-top boxes, and in as much as there were initiatives to introduce Integrated Digital Television (IDTV), every person -- including the Members of the Portfolio Committee -- had an opportunity to use it.  However, most families may not be able to afford it.

Dr Nkuna said that before the merger, there had been similar positions in the two departments. For example, there had been two duplicate positions and budgets for Director General, and instead of filling the vacancies that were duplicates on the other side, they had been able to use that money to establish a Programme Management Office (PMO), which was a specialised entity of people who would be researching on the fourth industrial revolution. There had not been any retrenchments and everyone had been placed under the current interim structure. A new structure was going to be created going forward, but he advised that there had been three colleagues who had not been matched against any positions. Those people would not lose their jobs. Instead, they would wait on the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) to identify vacancies in other departments where these people could be placed and, in the absence of that, they would look at the current structure and see how they could be accommodated.

Dr Nkuna said that within government and within the fiscus, the Department had been asked to make submissions to Treasury for support, and the Department was waiting for the response with regard to support for the SABC and the Post Office. He also reported that budget cuts would be imminent in the government departments, but Treasury had not disclosed the formula on how these budgets were to be cut. There had been discussions for the Department not to be adversely affected. It was also working on an economic recovery plan. With regard to the cash payments, plans were being made to engage with SASSA on how people would be paid.

The issue of DTT would be dealt with later in the APP. There were two critical paths for the Department – it had the Department had the set-top boxes and needed to take them to the provinces that had been identified for pilot purposes. One of the provinces was the Northern Cape, the second was the North West, and the third was the Free State. The reason for this was to ensure that by the end of the pilot project, the analogue signal would be switched off.

Dr Nkuna said that the MOU with COGTA formed part of a package of work the Department was doing to roll-out infrastructure. This was aimed at enabling industry and the state entities to roll-out infrastructure without being constrained by the barriers that were imposed by local government. There were other things that were being done to assist schools to get connected and be supported, particularly those where the disaster was being managed. A call was being made to local government to come to the party and assist those who were rolling-out infrastructure. This was part of the package that the Department was working on.

On the issue of cell phone availability, Dr Nkuna said that the most reliable source of information was the study which had been conducted by ICASA. However, the information was not detailed in terms of distribution and across the different age groups.

Adv Veounia Grootboom, Senior State Law Adviser, said that in terms of privacy, in the COGTA regulations that were published on 29 April 2020, regulation 8 provided for a Covid-19 designated judge, and that judge oversees and makes recommendations to the Minister of COGTA and Justice. This judge would advise on the amendments that were to be made and the enforcement of contact tracing. The role of the Department was to safeguard the privacy of people and ensure that on an urgent basis there was availability of contact tracing to the DHE.  In terms of the protection of the rights, there were some limitations that had been put in place, especially with regard to the regulation, so that the information of those who were traced could be safeguarded.

Ms Nomvuyiso Batyi, Acting DDG, said that the role of the Department with regard to DTT was to provide oversight over all the entities that have been tasked with its delivery. Last week, the Acting Minister, together with the Deputy Minister and DG, had assigned people to assist with SASSA, because SASSA had been without a Chief Financial Officer (CFO). However, the former acting CFO of the DoC had been assigned to assist. A stakeholder management team had been assigned to lead SASSA in mending relationships that had been shaken.

There was also a plan that would be rolled-out, which Dr Nkuna touched on earlier, concerning IDTV. The second part of the plan involved 863 000 set-top boxes in the various post offices that would be distributed in the different provinces, and this was expected to resume no later than the end of May. The reason for implementing most of the plans now, rather than prior to the pandemic, was because the Department had been distracted by the Disaster Management Act.

Further discussion

Mr Mackenzie shared his concerns about the challenges that were taking place, and asked if Advocate Grootboom had been aware of any of them, and if they were related to the regulations. He also asked what had happened to the idea of vouchers, as mentioned in the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Ms N Kubheka (ANC) wanted to know whether there was a timeline given to the Department regarding the set-top boxes’ programme. Would the available spectrum be enough, given that universities and TVET colleges would now be using it? Lastly, who would take the responsibility of upgrading of networks, especially in rural areas?

The Chairperson asked the Department to address the point that had been discussed at the beginning regarding those who would have access to DTT -- how was it being marketed, so that it was understood by the people who had access to it? The issue of the allocation of temporary spectrum had not been addressed. He asked the presenters to clarify how 5G was linked to the policy directive and information memorandum that had been issued by ICASA, and to explain what the implications of the withdrawal, if that had been deployed to 5G, as that would have been seen in the three provinces.  He also shared his concern about the delay of the DTT project.

DCDT responses

Deputy Minister Kekana said that there was a unit that dealt with DTT from the Departmental side, so that unit had been integrated into the DTPS. Dr Nkuna would be in a position to respond on the allocation of the unit. Minister Stella Ndabeni Abrahams had been able to task ICASA to review the standard of the set-top boxes and how they could be rolled out in a more affordable way. The standards had been established, and the PMO would be able to talk about it. She said she stood to be corrected, but the set-top box prices had gone down to below R300. The Department would have to consider those who were indigent.

Dr Nkuna responded to the question on the challenges regarding the regulations protecting the information of people. He said that it had been an ongoing matter with the Regulation of Interception of Communication Act (RICA) prior to the pandemic, but the Department had not been faced with any problems as far as the matter was concerned.

Regarding the rollout of the set-top boxes, Dr Nkuna said that there were challenges as the process could not be undertaken at level 5 of the lock down. However, the Post Office had indicated that they were ready to roll this process out at level 4.

With regard to the work of ICASA, the industry had been requested to manufacture content according to the ICASA standards, and this was expected to be continued with the easing of the lockdown. Mobile networks had been requested to market information, as they stood a chance of benefiting from it, and channel 404 on DSTV should be made available only on DTT. There was a question about the content, and whether it was compelling enough. ICASA was in the process of taking the SABC channels out of the DSTV bouquet so that they would be available to people who purchased IDTV.

Dr Nkuna referred to the emergency temporary spectrum relief for industry, and said the genesis had been to ease congestion and to extend services in areas where people needed to be online, but there was no coverage. This was related to the time frame of the spectrum relief, which was expected to end in June. However, due to the Disaster Management Act, it had not been easy to allocate a time frame. The current spectrum relief was expected to end in November, and ICASA was going to finalise the auctioning of this spectrum in line with the policy directions before moving on into a new dispensation. The Department would then conduct its own analysis on the implications of this before presenting the APP. The DGG had been tasked with being responsible for all infrastructure projects as far as DTT was concerned.

Ms Batyi focused on addressing Mr Mackenzie’s question regarding vouchers. She said that the vouchers were still part of the DTT project, and would come in only at phase 2. The issue of timelines was in the process of being reviewed, as they had begun work with SASSA only recently, and they would report back as soon as the discussions had been finalised.

The meeting was adjourned.

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