4th Parliament Legacy Report
Portfolio Committee on Communications
Activities undertaken: May 2009 – March 2014,
dated 12 March 2014
Executive Summary
Over the last five years, the
Portfolio Committee on Communications (PCC) has consistently carried out its
legal mandate while responding to challenges that may have negatively impacted
on the ICT and Postal sectors. More importantly, it has been important for the
Committee to identify areas of focus to ensure that the departments and
entities reporting to it align to the developmental state agenda[1] of the country. In the advent of
a democratic dispensation in South Africa, the Committee has been able to
respond effectively and transform the sector to respond to the needs of a
democratic society despite some unprecedented challenges.
The Committee also had to respond
to a global agenda as set out by the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU) which South Africa is a signatory and Member State. Being a global player
comes with many benefits as much as challenges, and in the telecommunications
and broadcasting sector, convergence and technological developments have had a
major impact. Countries that adapt to this global change are able to reform the
sector and witness unprecedented growth of the telecommunications and
broadcasting which as a result, has favourably become more dynamic and
competitive. The Committee continues to ensure that government harnesses
technology in order to derive economic and social developments and can maximise
benefits. The postal sector has also had to undergo unprecedented changes
necessitated by technology while cyber security has become a global and
fundamental challenge that accompanies technological innovation; in sum the
Committee has ensured that all its activities align to global patterns in
dealing with technology disruptions and is committed to seamless integration
into RSA business and society for the benefit of the country at large.
Today South Africa enjoys a
liberalised telecommunications market and an established and independent
regulatory environment of the sector. Over the years, South Africa has been
able to implement legislative, policy and regulatory transformation to ensure
that it responds positively to globalisation. This is a process that continues
to be a challenge because of an ever-changing environment bringing about new
dynamics which inevitably put pressure on the government to adjust legislation
and policies. However the pace at which the technology forces change is not
always in tandem with how quickly
government can effectively respond. For an example, during the last four years
South Africa has witnessed major infrastructural developments in the
telecommunications and broadcasting sectors including postal and yet the
legislative environment has remained largely unchanged meaning that the
ordinary citizens don’t always receive the benefits intended for them such as
affordable access to services especially by under-serviced communities.
Any Parliament Committee
responsible for such a pivotal and fast-paced sector therefore will always have
a need to reinvent itself administratively and deploy systems and strategies
that can support the work of Members of Parliament serving in the Committee.
This report provides a summary of
the work conducted by the Portfolio Committee on Communications during the 4th
Parliament (2009-2014). The purpose of the report is to provide returning and
new members a reference document in order to:
(i) ensure
an effective carrying out of Parliament mandate in a manner that addresses
issues impacting on the telecommunications, broadcasting, postal services,
advertising industry and print media sectors;
(ii) ensure
accountability of all departments and state owned entities reporting to the
Committee;
(iii) identify
areas of improvement and provide recommendations to the departments and state
owned companies;
(iv) identify
areas of improving efficiency of Members as well as Committee support staff and
provide recommendations where the Committee must strengthen systems and processes
for internal administration purposes; and
(v) provide
a historical inventory of documentation related to the Committee and
departments reporting to it.
The report also highlights the
major activities the Committee dealt with during 4th Parliament, namely
(i) the high cost to communicate programme; (ii) digital migration programme;
(iii) transformation of the print media programme; (iv) transformation of the
advertising industry; (v) passing the amendments of the ICASA Amendment Act No. 3 of 2006, Electronic
Communications Act (ECA), Post Bank Act, and South African Post Office Act; and
(vi) improve local content development.
In closing, the report highlights
specific areas for follow-up by the 5th Parliament including
outstanding recommendations to be responded to by departments. Lastly, it gives
reference to the strategic plan of the Committee and general recommendations
regarding Committee focus areas and budget requirements.
Firstly, let me thank the previous
Committee of the 3rd Parliament for the stunning and encouraging
work they have done and to have paved the foundation for us to contribute
positively and serve the country on the basis of their devoted attention and
influence to the sector policy and legislative environment. I recognise that
there are a number of deliverables based on our government’s programme of
action that still require review and implementation.
In this
report, I would like to highlight key issues that kept the Committee busy, not
alone but in partnership with internal government structures, private sector,
civil society at large and the international community. In carrying out our
work, the Committee operated on an outward-looking and all-inclusive model that
factored in all stakeholders that make up this concept of a rainbow nation.
Recognising
the role of ICTstowards the attainment of a developmental state agenda, the
Committee was charged with identifying key elements that contribute towards the
attainment of the latter.
Addressing
the inequalities of communities: this was amongst the first
of challenges in order to continue to redress the imbalances of the past. For
an example when the Committee conducted its first oversight in the Northern
Cape, communities had little or no access to SABC broadcasting services but as
the 4th Parliament comes to a close, majority of communities in that
province enjoy broadcasting services from the public broadcaster as well as
others.
Alignment
of the policy environment: so that it responds to the
broader mandate of government and respond to the government imperatives.
Addressing
cost to communicate: realising the fact that in order
to attract among others, local and international investment, cost to conduct
business remains a key incentive for economic growth and sustainability. To
that effect we have broadly engaged to solicit input from various sectors as
means to remove policy bottlenecks.
Universal
access and services: while we may have had challenges
in the area of achieving universal service in telecommunications through the
use of the universal service fund, we have made some inroads in influencing
both the policy maker and the regulator to accelerate infrastructure rollout
relating to availing broadcasting signal to under-serviced areas.
Outreach
and oversight: in attaining an equitable, fair and
transformed print media sector, we have hosted a number of outreach programmes
which sought to define the meaning of community media that culminated into an
agreed definition of community media in terms of the MDDA Act as well the
development of a Charter to address Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
(BBBEE) in the sector. I am pleased to reveal that ultimately, the Print and
Digital Media Transformation Task Team which was borne out of the latter
process has already published its findings and recommendations into the print
media sector.
While we
have had an outreach programme focusing specifically on the advertising and
marketing industry, there is still a need to pay more attention into the
factors that hamper the transformation of the sector.
Transformation
of the Postal sector:
there is recognition
for sustenance of this strategic structure for the purposes of sustaining
traditional services and introducing new services. The interventions by the 4th
Parliament was to ensure that there are sustained jobs for citizens, ensure new
business models for an industry overwhelmed by technological advances as well
as finding a revised sustainable funding model.
Information
security: while we recognise that convergence will require
integration of different contents, it was the Committees’ desire to ensure that
information relating to stakeholders (citizens, business and civil society at
large) must not be compromised. It remained a policy priority to ensure that in
any of our revised policy frameworks that privacy and protection of information
becomes a fundamental pillar of our democracy.
Promotion
of local content development: I am encouraged that the decision
by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) of ensuring that migration
happens. This will in turn provide a business opportunity for innovators
(content developers and producers) to take advantage of available platforms
created as a result of this migration to empower themselves while contributing
to economic growth and job creation.
Amongst
many other opportunities stemming from this migration, an opportunity exists
for the local manufacturing industry which could also be realised in
collaboration with the international community thereby strengthening our
international links with global players in order to further cross-border trade
and partnerships.
In noting, let us not forget
those who have passed on and who have contributed immensely to the work of the
Committee; the
death of Ms Nontsikelelo Magazi
was a huge loss to the Committee. She was a member who served for many years in
Parliament and sat on the Portfolio Committee on Communications.
I would also like to thank my predecessor, Honourable Ismail Vadi, who
served the Committee between 2009 and 2010 for the sterling work that paved the
way for my Chairmanship.
Lastly, I
wish the new Committee success in carrying out its legislative mandate. In my
opinion the Legacy Report in its entirety should form the basis for a five year
strategic plan of 5th Parliament.
In terms
of Chapter 4 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of
1996 (the Constitution) gives a mandate to the Portfolio Committee to
legislate, conduct oversight over the Executive and also facilitate public
participation. The Committee is a sector-specific “engine room” of Parliament’s
oversight and legislative work.
The
National Assembly (NA) appoints members to a number of Portfolio Committees to
exercise oversight over the various national government departments. The roles
of the Portfolio Committees, amongst others, are to:
·
Consider Bills;
The work of Committee is not restricted to
government. The Committee may also investigate any matter of public interest
that falls within the ICT area of responsibility.
The vision of the Committee is:
The
mission of the Committee is to:
The purpose of this report is to provide an account of the Portfolio
Committee on Communications’ work during the 4th Parliament and to
inform members of the incoming 5th Parliament of key outstanding
issues pertaining to the oversight and legislative programme of (i) DoC and its
entities; (ii) GCIS and its entity; and (iii) BSA.
It provides activities, achievements and challenges that emerged during
the period under review and outlines issues that should be considered for
follow up by 5th Parliament.
In
South Africa, the size of the telecommunication market is increasing, in line
with developments in terms of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) access and uptake. Sector growth continues to rise at (at least) double
the national growth rate, and is now contributing around 6 per cent to the
national Growth Domestic Product (GDP).[2]
Work by Abrahams and Goldstuck (2011) estimated
that the communications sector contributed 5 per cent to Gross Domestic Product
(GDP). Between 2007 and 2010, the ICT market grew by over
R131 billion to R179 billion.[3]
The Department of Communications (DoC), however, estimated that the sector
would grow to R187 billion in 2011, with an estimated figure of R250 billion by
2020. This growth will be driven by the rapid uptake and use of data and
applications-driven mobile communications.[4]
The value of the ICT industry is therefore subject to speculation and
unconfirmed figures. As revenue from the
communications sector moves beyond income from voice traffic and becomes
increasingly data driven, further investment and sector growth can be expected.[5]
For South Africa, this
growth can be attributed to sector policy albeit slow at times. The policy
environment has created an environment conducive to investment and
institutional arrangements have attempted to provide effective competition; but
a number of regulatory bottlenecks have resulted in sector constrains when
expanding. An important aspect of growth has to be underpinned by the
developmental state agenda of the country.
Future
revenue growth will be fuelled by accelerating the rollout of broadband[6],
thereby reaching more people and increasing the intensity of use of
telecommunication services. As more and more people join the
global information society and high-speed communication networks become an
indispensable infrastructure, the tracking and measurement of developments in
ICTs remain as relevant as ever.[7]
In
Africa, fixed (wired)-broadband penetration remains below 1 per cent, compared
with 27 per cent in Europe. An important trend highlighted by
the previous International Telecommunications Union (ITU) report[8]
and which will continue in the near future, is the shift from voice to data
traffic. A separate but identical
research, a 2013 Cisco research, noted that global mobile data traffic grew by
70 per cent in 2012, to a level which corresponds to almost 12 times the entire
Internet traffic in 2000. Ericsson[9]
also forecasts that by 2018 there will be 6.5 billion mobile-broadband
subscriptions, almost as many as there are mobile-cellular telephone
subscriptions in 2013.[10]
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce comprises
both traditional retail conducted in the online space and intangible products
like air ticket sales, fulfilled online. The total spent on online retail goods
in South Africa in 2010 passed the R2 billion mark for the first time, growing
by 30 per cent to reach R2.028 billion. In 2011, this high growth rate was
maintained, with a further 30 per cent increase, to R2.636 billion.
Nothing sums up the
potential of both the current and future impact of technology on Africa better
than the insatiable appetite for connectivity. Today it is about the connections between human
voices; in future it will
increasingly revolve around the data stream that is made possible by these connections.
It has long been believed that South Africa has the
largest Internet economy in Africa. This is a positive result emanating from
government vision towards a connected society. At the end of 2011, South Africa
had approximately R8.5 million Internet
users.[11] This represented no less than a 25 per cent increase over the 2010 figure of R6.8
million, maintaining a high
growth rate fuelled by the explosion of smartphones in the South African market.
The current penetration rate is 34 per cent that
translates to 17 million South Africans. This growth brings Internet
penetration in South Africa to approximately 17 per cent. Despite rapid growth,
however, it still lags behind Egypt’s 21.6 million users gives it 26 per cent
penetration and Morocco’s 15.6 million users represents 49 per cent penetration.[12] In each of these countries, the high
Internet penetration is a consequence of heavy use of the Internet on
cellphones, but it should be borne in mind that physical Internet access
infrastructure is less developed in these countries, and quality of access is
relatively poor.[13]
On the
other hand, broadband,
however, represents a new challenge for researchers and governments. First, its
deployment has proceeded at an incredibly fast pace. Within 12 years, broadband
has been adopted by over 62 per cent of households in the United States, 80 per
cent in the Netherlands and 96 per cent in Korea.[14][15]
Consequently, the length of time series data of broadband adoption is
considerably shorter than for voice telecommunications. Second, only the
countries that have understood early on its economic potential have proceeded
to collect statistics at the beginning of the diffusion process. Third, since
broadband is an access technology for data communications, it only has an
economic effect in combination with the adoption of information technology, and
the implementation of organisational and process changes in enterprises. In
sum, because broadband has been deployed in such a short time span and it is an
enabler of remote information technology access, it has represented a
substantial research challenge. The primary challenge, though, remains the lack
of disaggregated datasets that allow to quantitatively establish the conditions
under which broadband has an economic effect.[16]
South Africa enjoys vast infrastructure to promote connectivity and the work of
the Committee continues to support the adoption of this highly sought
technology development that is changing how the world operates and interacts.
The DoC is
mandated to create a vibrant ICT sector that ensures that all South Africans
have access to robust, reliable, affordable and secure ICT services in order to
advance socio-economic development goals and support the Africa agenda and
contribute to building a better world. The mandate is further embedded in legislation as well as other policy
frameworks. The legislative framework for the work of the DoC is contained mainly in
the:
·
Broadcasting Act (Act 4 of 1999);
·
Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (Act 25 of 2002);
·
Electronic Communications Act (Act 36 of 2006);
·
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act (Act 13 of
2000);
·
Sentech Act (Act 63 of 1996);
·
Postal Services Act (Act 124 of 1998);
·
South African Post Office SOC Ltd. Act (Act 22 of 2011); and
·
South African Postbank Limited Act (Act 9 of 2010).
Consequently the core functions of the DoC are:
·
To develop ICT policies and legislation that create conditions for an accelerated
and shared growth of the South African economy, which positively impacts on the
well-being of all our people and is sustainable;
·
To ensure the development of robust, reliable, secure and affordable ICT
infrastructure that supports and enables the provision of a multiplicity of
applications and services to meet the needs of the country and its people;
·
To contribute to the development of an inclusive information society
which is aimed at establishing South Africa as an advanced information-based society
in which information and ICT tools are key drivers of economic and societal
development;
·
To contribute to e-Skilling the nation for equitable prosperity and
global competitiveness;
·
To strengthen the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
(ICASA), in order to enable it to regulate the sector in the public interest
and ensure growth and stability in the sector;
·
To enhance the capacity of, and exercise oversight over, State Owned
Enterprises (SOE’s) as the delivery arms of Government; and
·
To fulfil South Africa’s continental and international responsibilities
in the ICT field.
In executing its role, the DoC is also
guided, amongst others, by:
·
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of
1996);
·
The Public Service Act, 1994 (Act 103 of 1994) as amended; and
·
The Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act 1 of 1999) as amended.
Throughout
the term when delivering the State of the Nation Address (SoNA), the President
of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Jacob Zuma, has always
highlighted the need for intervention to develop the Second Economy as means of
addressing a lack of opportunities and under development in South Africa. For
the communications sector, this priority has been an indication of an urgent
need to increase investment in the country through reducing the cost of doing
business to bridge the digital divide and narrow the gap between the rich and
the poor through empowering, in particular, underprivileged communities with
the necessary ICT skills.[i]
In addition he has made several
pronouncements regarding bold ICT interventions that have been made during the
States of the Nation Address over the five year period. These include the
following:
·
The 37 000km of fibre-optic cable
that has been laid by the private and public sectors in the past five years
will be "significantly” expanded in the years ahead.
In
accordance with the 12 outcomes-based performance management framework adopted
by government, the Department contributes to outcome number six: the development of an efficient,
competitive, and responsive economic infrastructure network by developing
ICT policies and legislation, as well as overseeing the operation of public
entities within the sector.
Job
creation is one of the key priority service delivery imperatives for the
current term of government. In an effort to address the challenge of structural
unemployment, the South African government has embarked on a new economic
growth path in a bid to create five million jobs and reduce unemployment from
25 per cent to 15 per cent over the next 10 years. The framework targets 100
000 new jobs by 2020 in the knowledge intensive sectors of ICT, higher
education, healthcare, mining related technologies, pharmaceuticals and
biotechnologies.
Furthermore,
an ICT-Wide Working Group on Job Creation was also established following the
interaction of the Department with the top 30 ICT Companies in 2011. This
working group was charged with coordinating ICT Industry contribution to job
creation with tangible commitments on the total number of jobs in the sector.
The areas of focus for job creation identified by the aforesaid working group
were as follows:
a)
Broadband
Infrastructure and services;
b)
Digital
Terrestrial Television Infrastructure;
c)
Creative
Industries;
d)
SMME and
Human Capital Development;
e)
Regulatory
environment for sector competitive growth and development;
f)
Postal
Sector including Postal Services;
g)
Manufacturing
of Electronics; and
h)
Content
creation for increased digital television channels.
In terms
of the DoC’s contribution towards achieving the 5 Priorities of Government,
which are creating decent work, health, education, fighting corruption and
combating crime and rural development, it has achieved the following:
Job
creation: A total of
36 500 jobs were created from the period 2010 to March 2013. A total of 823
jobs were created in 2013, of these, 39.6 per cent (326) were females and 39.8 per cent (328) were
males. 66.7 (549) of these individuals were youth. Of the total employed, 22.4
per cent (185) were employed on a permanent basis, while 57 per cent (469) were
employed on a temporary employment. Only 1.8 per cent of the total employed
consists of people living with disabilities. The consolidated number of jobs created from 2010 to date within the
ICT sector is therefore 37 323. This figure includes direct and indirect jobs,
as well as permanent and temporary appointments. [17]
Lastly, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) launched the
technical standard (SANS 862) for STBs in June 2012 during the ICT Indaba. The
process of manufacturing the STBs and rollout of digital migration will be
kick-started because government has resolved the issue of conditional access
with broadcasters. Twenty five thousand jobs are expected to be created through
the Set Top Box manufacturing strategy.
Education:
The Department finalised the Broadband Strategy and Plan in December 2013. One
of the focuses of the Broadband Strategy is to connect schools and educational
institutions. The Broadband Strategy has specific targets related to the
education system.
Health:
The Broadband Plan also targets
hospitals, clinics and health institution. The Broadband Plan has targets to be
achieved in connecting the health facilities.
Fighting
Crime: In March 2012, Cabinet approved a National
Cybersecurity Framework. The framework is a broad term encompassing many
aspects of electronic information, data, and media services that affect a
country security, economy and wellbeing.
Rural
Development: In its infrastructure deployment to expand
access to ICT services throughout the country, the Department facilitates
universal access to ICT networks and applications for schools, health and
government centres. Therefore in communications, the President noted vital ICT
projects that should benefit from this investment, namely: (i) migrating to
digital broadcasting; (ii) promoting cooperation on ICT issues with Africa and
the rest of the world; (iii) promoting affordable and accessible financial
services; (iv) creating opportunities within the economy; (v) using ICT to
advance cultural and heritage objectives; (vi) the rollout of National Wireless
Broadband (NWB) countrywide as well as in other areas in which the ICT sector
can also play an indirect but significant role; and (vii) the development of a
broadband legislative framework.
In September 2012, the Department undertook a soft launch of digital
migration in the Northern Cape.
The
Department programmes comprises of the following: (1) Administration; (2) ICT
International Affairs and Trade; (3) ICT Policy Development; (4) Finance and
ICT Enterprise Development; (5) ICT Infrastructure Development; and (6)
Presidential National Commission (PNC).
Over the
period under review, the Department did not alter its programmes. However, once
completed and approved, the restructuring exercise that started in the 2010/11
financial year will result in a revised structure of the Department. The aim of
the changes is to ensure that the Department has the capacity to deliver its
mandate. The Department’s new structure will consist of the following
programmes: Programme 1 - Administration;
Programme 2 - International
Affairs; Programme 3 - Policy,
Research and Capacity Development; Programme 4 - Broadcasting and Communications Regulations;
and Programme 5 - ICT
Infrastructure Support.
Graph A
The noticeable
decline in budget allocation which started in earnest in 2009/10 to 2011/12 can
be attributed to many factors such as the successful hosting of the World Cup
2010 by South Africa as well as the hosting of African Cup of Nations (AFCON)
2013, see Graph A above.
Having said that, Graph B (below), paints an
encouraging picture in that it reflects a Department that has progressed in
expenditure patterns between 2010/11 and 2012/13 financial years.
Graph B
The
spending for the previous financial year (2012/13), amounted to R1.6 billion
which equates to 99.8 per cent and there is a mere under-spending of R3.8
million mainly as a result of transfer payments to New Partnership for Africa’s
Development e-Africa Commission (NEPAD). The huge spending is mainly under
programme 4, which constitutes 73 per cent of the budget on transfer payments
to entities. This expenditure trend is commendable and should be encouraged
granted it is a reflection of expenditure in relation to service delivery
objectives of the Department.
The DoC
obtained a qualified report for the 2009/10 financial year, and improved to an
unqualified opinion with findings in last three consecutive financial years, in
the 2010/11, 2011/12 and in 2012/13 financial years.
While
the DoC has consistently acquired unqualified audit opinion, it incurred
irregular expenditure amounting to R 27105 million and fruitless and wasteful
expenditure of R25 21.5 million over three year period under
review.[18]
However, it must be noted from these above figures, for instance, that all
amounts have accrued from the 2010/11 financial year till this financial year.
During the 2012/13 financial year alone, the DoC incurred R 5 210 million in
irregular expenditure which is a major improvement from the amount incurred in
the 2011/2012 financial year (R 20 054 million).
The Department has six (6)
State-Owned Companies (SOCs) that report to it under Programme 6 whose aim is
to provide strategic leadership to international agreements and monitor the
implementation of South Africa’s ICT foreign policy as well prioritising
Africa’s development through the:
·
Positioning of South Africa’s ICT sector as an economic hub;
·
Fulfilment of South Africa’s ICT responsibilities within Multilateral
Institutions of governance (Geneva focal points: ITU, UPU, OECD);
·
Fulfilment of South Africa’s ICT responsibilities towards the
socio-economic development on the African continent; and
·
Fulfilment of South Africa’s International ICT responsibilities within
Bilateral Institutions of governance.
Name of Entity |
Mandate of Entity |
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) |
To
license and regulate electronic communications and broadcasting services and
the postal sector. |
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) |
To supply
broadcasting and information services and services that are ancillary
thereto, to the general public in the Republic of South Africa and beyond
its borders and to achieve the objectives as set out in the Broadcasting Act
4 of 1999. |
Sentech |
To
provide the Electronic Communications and Electronic Communications Network
Services as stipulated in the Electronic Communications Act No 36 of 2005. |
Ikamva National e-Skills Institute
(iNeSI)-launched in February 2014 |
A merger between the former National Electronic Media Institute of
South Africa (NEMISA), Institute for Satellite and Software Applications
(ISSA) and the e-Skills Institute. All were entities of the Department which
were merged in order to address existing overlaps and avoid duplication
and undue competition within the Department. iNeSI is a national collaborator and
facilitator to develop e-skills within the country for equitable prosperity
and global competitiveness. A multi-stakeholder collaborative network
ensures impact. |
Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) |
USAASA is
established in terms of an Act of Parliament. The existence, functions,
duties and mandate of the Agency are governed by sections 80 – 91 of the
Electronic Communications Act No 36 of 2005 (“the EC Act”) which came into
operation on 19 July 2006. ASAASA promote the goal of universal service
access and construct infrastructure in under-serviced areas. |
South African Post Office (SAPO) |
To provide affordable and accessible postal and financial services to
South Africans. |
3.1.5.1 Telkom
In
addition to the State-Owned Companies mentioned above, Telkom historically evolved as part of the then
Department of Posts and Telecommunications that existed prior to the demise of
Apartheid and currently although it is registered with the Johannesburg
stock exchange, government is a majority shareholder. As at 31 March 2011, the
shareholding structure at Telkom was:
·
Government 39.8 per cent;
·
Public Investment Corporation 10.9 per cent;
·
Telkom Treasury 2.0 per cent; and
·
Free Float 47.3 per cent.
Since the
democratic dispensation took over the governance modes have shifted
increasingly towards a pro-consultation mode which has led to the
internalisation and mandating of new communication practices in many
jurisdictions. These include the development and use of instruments which
promote citizen empowerment such as Bill of Rights and the Promotion of Access
to Information Act (PAIA), the use of public performance measures, various
forms of e-government and the increased use of government surveys and
advertising among others. Government communications are typically thought of as
the 'sermons' in a 'carrots, sticks, and sermons' formulation of basic policy
instrument types.
Over the
past five years the President of the Republic has reiterated that the government departments at all levels
must work closely with communities and ensure that all concerns are attended to
before they escalate.
The
reference by the president during the SoNAs relating to the Governing Party’s
five priorities and strategic framework re-affirms the Department’s crucial
role in communication. Moreover, the
Department responds to the strategic outcome-oriented goal number 12, which is efficient, effective and
development-oriented public service and empowered, fair and inclusive
citizenship.
The Department aims to provide
a comprehensive communication service on behalf of government to facilitate the
involvement of the majority of South Africans in governance, reconstruction and
development, nation building and reconciliation.
Vision:
The
pulse of communication excellence in government.
Mission:
To
lead the strategic communication of government, ensure coherence of message,
and open and extend channels of communication between government and the
people, towards a shared vision.
The functions of the Department as embedded in its founding
document are to:
·
Provide
strategic leadership in government communication;
·
Strengthen the
government-wide communication system for effectiveness and proper alignment;
·
Learn and
explore communication methods and practices to enhance communication;
·
Lead and guide
the domestic and international marketing of South Africa;
·
Build
partnerships with strategic stakeholders in pursuit of the Department’s’
vision;
·
Operate communication
platforms that will keep public servants informed; and
·
Operate an
efficient, effective and compliant government communication organization.
In
an effort to communicate, market and publicise government’s infrastructure-led
economy as well as the national policy frameworks of government National Growth
Path (NGP) and National Development Plan (NDP) in every corner, street and
avenue of the country the Department developed a five-year National
Communication Strategy (NCS) in line with Cabinet and public needs, which was
endorsed by Cabinet in 2011. The NCS is developed to drive the communication
priorities to the Medium Term Strategy Framework (MTSF) and is updated annually
to ensure that it remains relevant and highlights communication priorities that
may have arisen in the course of the year. The Strategy is also cascaded down
to all national and provincial departments to ensure uniformity. In addition
the Department will assist the strategic communications related to the
popularisation of the Department of Basic Education’s Bill of Responsibilities
which aims at building social cohesion.
The GCIS
was formally established in terms of section 239 of the Constitution and as a
strategic unit in The Presidency in terms of section 7 of the Public Service Act,
1994 (Act 103 of 1994).
The
organisation is further mandated to coordinate, guide and advise on government
communication, including media liaison, development communication and
marketing. Its goal is to achieve integrated, coordinated and clear communications
between government and South African citizens to enable public involvement in
the country’s transformation. The work of GCIS is informed by:
• The
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996);
• The
Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 1999 (Act 1 of 1999, as amended);
• International
bilateral and multilateral agreements;
• National
Treasury’s Framework for Strategic Plans and Annual Performance Plans; and
• The
Medium Term Strategic Framework 2009-2014.
Over the
years (2009/10 – 2012/13), the Department has undergone a series of structural
realignments in order to respond to the changing communications environment
necessitated by the technological and broader government developments. This
section below will seek to explain these changes in programmes.
During the
past three (3) financial years up to 2009/10, the Department was organised into
eight programmes:
(i)
Programme 1: Administration;
(ii)
Programme 2: Policy and Research;
(iii)
Programme 3: Government and Media Liaison;
(iv)
Programme 4: Provincial Coordination and Programme
Support;
(v)
Programme 5: Communication Service Agency;
(vi)
Programme 6: International Marketing and Media
Development;
(vii)
Programme 7: Government Publication; and
(viii) Programme 8: Communication Resource Centre.
During
the 2011/12 Strategic Plan, following an internal organisational review, the
Department reviewed its structure into three key core programmes namely:
(i)
Programme 1: Administration;
(ii)
Programme 2: Communication and Content Management;
and
(iii)
Programme 3: Government and Stakeholder Engagement.
Towards
the fourth quarter of the 2012/13 financial year, the Department reviewed its
programmes from three programmes to four programmes and this necessitated
alterations to the names of two of the programmes as follows:
(i)
Programme 1: Administration –
remains unchanged;
(ii)
Programme 2: Communication and
Content Management; is now Content
Processing and Dissemination;
(iii) Programme
3: Government and Stakeholder Engagement; is now Intergovernmental Coordination and Stakeholder Management; and
(iv) Programme
4: Communication Service Agency – remains unchanged.
In the
2012/13 financial year, there was yet again a reshuffle in the Department’s
programme. The Training and Development Chief Directorate was transferred from
Programme 2(the Communication and Content Management Programme) to Programme 1
(Administration), the Corporate Services Sub-programme, which handles
department-wide human resource development.
Lastly,
following the shifting of International Marketing Council (IMC), now Brand
South Africa (BSA), to The Presidency, the Communication Service Agency became
a sub-programme of Programme 3, (Government and Stakeholder Engagement). And the
Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) became the only public entity that
is managed by the Department.
Over the
five year review period, a steady increase in government funding was observed
between 2009/10 until 2012/13 totalling a budget of R461 million, but decreases
from 2013/14, see Graph C below:
Despite
budget constraints, targets were amended accordingly to respond to the cuts. As
a result, the Department has managed to function and deliver on its mandate
with aplomb considering that at this time, the Department had undergone programme
and organisational changes necessitated by the need to deliver the National
Communication Strategy.
There is
substantial evidence that shows the effectiveness and efficiency of the
Department in terms of its allocated budget versus expenditure. But the recent
two financial years 2011/12 and 2012/13, the Department’s expenditure was at 86
per cent in 2012/13, lower from 95 per cent in 2011/12, see Graph D below. This
increase in under expenditure can be attributed to programme and organisational
changes to the Department resulting in a large percentage of unspent budget
when compared to the last 4 financial years. Having occupied the new building,
it is expected that GCIS spending will improve to normality during the 2013/14
financial year.
Graph D
During
the two consecutive financial years, (2007/08 and 2008/09) the Department had
received a financially unqualified audit with no findings. In the subsequent financial years up to the
2012/13 financial year, the Department received financially unqualified with
findings, though limited.
During the
two consecutive financial years, (2007/08 and 2008/09) the Department had
received a financially unqualified audit with no findings; but in the subsequent
financial years up to the 2012/13, the Department received financially
unqualified audits with findings, though limited. It should also be emphasised
that these findings refer to the same issues which have been raised repeatedly
by the AG.
2008/09 |
2009/10 |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
Financially
unqualified with no findings |
Financially
unqualified with findings |
Financially
unqualified with findings |
Financially
unqualified with findings |
Financially
unqualified with findings |
The Media
Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) was established under the executive
authority of the GCIS and listed as a Schedule 3A public entity in terms of the
Public Finance Management Act, 1999
(Act 1 of 1999). Its executive authority is the
Minister in The Presidency, who it reports to through the GCIS.
To ensure sound governance of the public
entity, regular meetings are held between GCIS and the public entity in order
to:
·
consider the public entity’s strategic plans; and
·
monitor and evaluate the operational and financial performance,
including evaluation of the quarterly reports prior to transfer of funds being
effected.
Name of Entity |
Mandate of Entity |
Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) |
To create an enabling environment for media development and diversity
that reflects the needs and aspirations of all South Africans. |
To redress exclusion and marginalisation of disadvantaged communities
and persons from access to the media and the media industry. |
|
To promote media development and diversity by providing support
primarily to community and small commercial media projects. |
Brand
South Africa (BSA) is South Africa’s official marketing agency and the
custodian of brand South Africa. The agency has been in existence since 2002
and it is established to lead the global and domestic marketing of the nation’s
brand.[19]
Previously called the International Marketing Council (IMC), it develops and
implements a proactive and coordinated international marketing and
communication strategy for South Africa to contribute to job creation and
poverty reduction, and to attract inward investment, trade and tourism. It is also meant to help create a positive and
compelling brand image for South Africa. Its main objective is the marketing of
South Africa through the Brand South Africa Campaign.
Following
a Cabinet review during the 2011/12 financial year, it was renamed from IMC to
BSA and is now a sub programme (Programme 4) under Budget Vote 1 of the
Presidency and under Minister Collins Chabane. It is the only entity of the
Presidency reporting to the Committee. The Agency no longer reports to GCIS as
was the case before 2011/12 financial year.
It is a schedule 3A public entity, registered as a Trust. A
consistent Brand South Africa message creates strategic advantages in terms of
trade and tourism for the country in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
The year
under review marked the first year BSA reported directly to The Presidency,
following the operational changes that were introduced in the previous
financial year .President Jacob Zuma appointed new members of the BSA Board of
Trustees to help strengthen the South African brand identity locally and
abroad.
Mandate:
BSA
was given the mandate of nation brand management, which was influenced by
government policy imperatives. The objective was to enhance South Africa’s
global competitiveness and international reputation and to build pride and
patriotism amongst South Africans and contribute to social cohesion and nation
brand ambassadorship.
Vision:
For
South Africa to be acknowledged as a Top 20 Nation Brand and a Top 30 Competitive
Nation by 2020.
Mission:
To
build and manage South Africa’s nation brand reputation in order to strengthen
the country’s global competitiveness.
The
following are the long term goals and strategic objectives of BSA:
·
To ensure
that all partners across government, the private sector and civil society are
aligned behind nation brand in terms of corporate identity, behaviours,
messaging and imaging;
·
To
contribute to increased pride and patriotism, active citizenship and social
cohesion;
·
To monitor
nation brand performance on global competitiveness and to inform target
audiences, and policy development processes, with regard to the country’s
policies that impact competitiveness;
·
To inform
and influence conversations and perceptions about South Africa by global and
local audiences and proactively manage the ‘narrative’ by enhancing success
stories and achievements and communicating the national vision and plan;
·
To
collaborate with partners and leverage each other’s resources to extend brand
and messaging reach and impact in a cost effective manner; and
·
To ensure
sound governance, compliance, human capital and risk management systems to
ensure the long-term sustainability of the organisation.
BSA’s
activities are influenced by the National Development Plan (NDP), South
Africa’s national objectives of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, job
creation, poverty alleviation and social cohesion based on (i) the
Constitution; (ii) the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTEF); (iii) the Nation
Plan of Action; (iv) the National Communications Framework; and (v) the
country’s International Relations Strategy. The policy messages derived from
the State of the Nation (SoNA) sets the tone for BSA’s task each year.
Over the five year review period, with the
exception of 2011/12 where there was a considerable drop in financial
allocation, there is a steady increase in government funding for BSA, with the
year 2012/13 totalling an allocated budget of R154.8 million. This is a considerable
increase from the R140.1 million of the 2011/2012 funding allocation, see Graph
E below. There is yet another increase to R160.4 million for the financial year
2013/14 and R167.7 million for the financial year 2014/15. Increased funding
will ensure South Africa a destination of choice while promoting social
cohesion.
Graph E
In terms
of quarterly expenditure for the previous financial year (2012/13), there is
substantial evidence that shows the effectiveness and efficiency of BSA in terms
of its allocated budget versus expenditure. It is evident that BSA has been
consistent in spending all allocated budget within the quarters with the
exception of quarter 3 where it spent slightly less than the expected
expenditure. However, the entity is evidently on par with spending of its
financial allocation having spent all its allocation by end of financial year.
This is a commendable feat when considering the responsibility of the entity in
relation to its mandate
. And BSA obtained three unqualified reports for the 2010/11, 2011/12
and 2012/13 financial years.
BSA
achieved an unqualified report during the year under review. The financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the
financial position of BSA as at 31 March 2013, and its financial performance
and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with the SA Standards of
GRAP and the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Name of Entity |
Mandate of Entity |
Brand South Africa |
Nation brand management to enhance South Africa’s global
competitiveness and international reputation and to build pride and
patriotism amongst South Africans and contribute to social cohesion and
nation brand ambassadorship |
The
table below provides an overview of the number of meetings held, legislation
and international agreements processed and the number of oversight trips and
study tours undertaken by the committee, as well as any statutory appointments
the committee made, during the 4th Parliament:
Activity |
2009/10 |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
Total |
Meetings
held |
42 |
47 |
42 |
45 |
44 |
217 |
Legislation
processed |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
Oversight
trips undertaken |
1 |
0 |
7 |
3 |
0 |
11 |
Study
tours undertaken |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
International
agreements processed |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Statutory
appointments made |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
12 |
Interventions
considered |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Petitions
considered |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
During the term of office, the Committee interacted with various
stakeholders. The stakeholders listed here below give an indication of the
sectors’ major players that have engaged the Committee. As part of its
strategic plan, the 5th Parliament Committee will develop an
extensive stakeholder matrix as indicated in Section 11 of this report.
Broadcasters: SABC,
Etv, Multichoice, and community broadcasters.
Electronic Communications Network and Service licensees: Vodacom, Mobile Technology Network (MTN), Cell C,
8ta, Neotel, TelkomSA, Virgin Mobile, USALs.
Major Stakeholders: Fibre
Communications, Broadband Infraco, Smile Communications, South African
Communicators Forum (SACF), National Association of Broadcasters in South
Africa (NABSA), Research ICT Africa; Wireless Access Provider Association (WAPA)
Non-governmental organisations, Internet Solutions, Internet Service Providers
Association (ISAP), the South African National Research and Education Network (SANREN),
National Association of Manufacturers in Electronic Components (NAMEC), Right
to Know (R2K), various Unions of the sector such as the Communication
Workers Union (CWU), Black Circle, Pygma Consulting, Support Public
Broadcasting South Africa (SOS), Academia, labour, political entities and SMME’s of the sector and other sectors.
Committees
scrutinise legislation, oversee government action, and interact with the
public. One of the most important aspects of the oversight function is the
consideration by Committees of Annual Reports and Budgets of organs of State,
and reports of the Auditor-General. Depending on the purpose of the oversight,
the Committee will either request a briefing from the organ of State or visit
as a form of fact-finding mission; a public hearing constitutes such a visit.
The
Committee conducted the following public hearings during the 4th
Parliament:
The
telecommunications industry is the central nervous system of an economy as it
connects all parts of a network society and rapidly shares vital information
between its connections. It connects users to one another and to information,
which is critical to the operation of every society. It is hard to imagine how
a country without a robust telecommunications sector with high cost to conduct
business can stay competitive in the global economy. Therefore, the most
important features of business and society are ensuring that we implement
measures geared towards reducing costs to conduct business. Cost-based pricing is a regulatory market remedy that
will begin to reduce the costs of calls and other forms of communications. It
must be recognised that the quality of the infrastructure and speed of
the connection are crucial issues, but in South Africa one of the main concerns
remains price.
In a
Portfolio Committee meeting 14 September 2009, the Committee resolved to hold public hearings based on these proposals: (i)
mobile and telecommunications operators to drop the interconnection rates with
effect from 1 November 2009 to 60 cents per minute during peak times; (ii)
interconnection rates should be further reduced by 15 cents per annum on the 1
November 2009 for each successive year until 2012; and (iii) the Committee
further declared that it was willing to introduce a Bill to amend the
Electronic Communications Act (No 36 of 2005) during the next session of
Parliament.
The Committee hosted the public hearings over two days (12 – 13 October
2009) and the Committee received over 80 submissions, which responded to two
proposals as mentioned in paragraph above. There after the Committee selected
22 for oral submission. An exception was made in allowing Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU) to also present to the Committee as its
submission was received after the closing date. The Chairperson made a
discretionary ruling based on the nature of COSATU’s constituency and the
voices it represented.
The
Committee received over 80 submissions and the consensus was that people
supported the initiative. The Committee had selected 22 for oral submission.
ICASA responded on 15 February 2010.
Mr Paris
Mashile, Chairperson: ICASA stated that he told the Committee at their last
meeting that ICASA was guided by Chapter 10 (Section 67) of the Electronic
Communications Act (ECA). The intention of the report back was to inform
Parliament about what they have been doing since they had last met. ICASA had
contracted a consulting firm to conduct research into the Wholesale Call
Termination (WCT) Market. This information would be used in the drafting of the
regulations for termination rates.
In October
2009, ICASA issued a comprehensive WCT questionnaire. The objective was to
collect information to evaluate the effectiveness of competition as part of a
Chapter 10 market review process. It also assisted ICASA in getting an
understanding of the status of competition issues in the wholesale market.
ICASA was
in the process of drafting a position paper on WCT as well as one on
Termination Rate Regulations. Public hearings would be held in May 2010 in
order to obtain input from stakeholders and to give them the opportunity to
voice their opinions about the important matter of competition. The final
regulations would be drawn up before the end of June 2010.
6.1.2 ICASA:
Reasons for rejecting mobile operators’ interconnection rates amendment
agreement
Ms
Nomvuyiso Batyi, Councillor: ICASA stated that ICASA had received Mobile
Termination Rate (MTR) filings from Vodacom, MTN and Cell C on 25 January 2010.
The agreement sought to bind ICASA to accept the filing without question, and
not to review the MTR until after 1 March 2013. This was illegal as it fettered
ICASA’s powers. Also, ICASA could not be party to an interconnection agreement.
The interconnection agreement sought to impose obligations on ICASA.
If
operators amended rates in their existing interconnection agreements, without
imposing conditions on ICASA, then the Authority would accept the amendments.
ICASA would not be distracted from its intention to complete the Chapter 10
process, and was committed to completing the process as well as regulating
Wholesale Termination Rates (WTR).
During the
2012/13 financial year, the Portfolio Committee on Communications embarked on
another set of Public Hearings regarding the general cost to communicate in
South Africa. The Cost to Communicate Public Hearings formed part of the
broader and continuous programme mandate of the Committee to investigate the
impact of high costs-to-communicate to the public. The hearings sought to
leverage from the partnership between Parliament, government, industry and the
public in order to inform the legislative, policy and regulatory interventions
to help bring the costs of communications to affordable levels.
These
hearings were a phased programme where the initial process was extended only to
the Department of Communications(DoC) as the Policy maker, the Independent
Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), as the regulator, as well as
the dominant mobile and fixed-line and mobile players in the telecommunications
sector in the country (Telkom, Cell-C, Vodacom, 8ta and MTN).
For the
second phase the Committee embarked on an identical public hearing process that
focused on all role players in the telecommunications sector value chain,
interested parties and the public at large.
Therefore
the Committee conducted four provincial public hearings on Cost to Communicate
in (i) Cape Town, 29 – 30 November, 2012 (ii) Gauteng Province, 22 – 25 July,
2013; (iii) Eastern Cape Province, 29 – 30 July, 2013; and (iv) KwaZulu-Natal
Province, 31 July – 1 August 2013.
As is the
norm with public hearings of Parliament, organisations and the general public
were invited to make written submissions to the Committee via the Committee
Secretary, and were also requested to indicate intent to make oral
presentations to the Committee.
It is
widely reported that the cost of communication is still high in South Africa
and is mainly due to a lack of competition in the market. And that despite
ICASA‘s regulatory intervention to regulate the Call Termination Rates (CTRs)
for both Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs) and Fixedline Termination Rates (FTRs)
regime, the cost of communication still remains high while competition remains
fragmented with anti-competitive conditions for new entrants and challenger
networks. For more information around this subject, new Members will have
access to the document as part of this Legacy Handbook.
In general the public
hearings process also gave the Committee an opportunity to gather public
information that will assist the Committee to better perform its oversight role
informed by the needs of citizens and businesses both large and small. A total
of forty – three (43) oral and written submissions were received by the
Committee during hearings.
As
indicated in section 12.2.1 of this document, the 5th Parliament
will have to follow-up on the recommendations of the Committee during this
important programme.
On 21 September 2011, the Committee hosted a Communications Indaba on
transformation in the print media, during which several stakeholders made
submissions to the Committee and the Committee committed to addressing the challenges of the media industry.
The Committee acknowledged that the Indaba was a first step
towards necessary engagement on transformation and diversity in the media.
In the
main, Members of Parliament sought to propose that the print media be
encouraged to contribute to Media Development and Diversity (through the MDDA
although it was under-funded) by legislative prescription. Members also
suggested that MDDA with Print Media of South Africa (PMSA) and GCIS must
conduct research to update information on ownership in terms of MDDA Act and on
B-BBEE certificates.
The
Committee said the MDDA had to fulfil its mandate and should not delve into
content of publications. Members warned that regulation and control that would
impede the media was not the way to go. The Chairperson of the Committee stated
that challenges in the media industry had to be addressed and there needed to
be a commitment to the transformation agenda. The Indaba was a first step
towards necessary engagement on transformation and diversity in the media.
The
Portfolio Committee on Communications held discussions for two days (20 – 21
September 2011) to get an update on the state of readiness on Digital Migration
(DM) and Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) from the stakeholders that are
involved in the project. The Department of Communications (DoC), Trade &
Industry (DTI), the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
(ICASA), the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), broadcasters and
manufacturers were invited to brief the Committee.
The
Committee called on the DoC, ICASA and SABS to facilitate the process by
meeting their set targets, because this was the foundation required by
broadcasters to prepare for the launch. During the briefing sessions the DoC
confirmed that the plan was still on track to launch DTT by April 2012. The DoC
informed the Committee that the Digital Migration Policy Amendments were
gazetted for public comment on August 19 and the process had to be completed
before the end of this year. ICASA told members that it also planned to repeal
the Digital Migration regulations and publish DTT regulations for public
comment.
Members
questioned the affordability of a Set Top Box (STB) to ordinary South Africans
who live below the breadline. The committee welcomed the proposed 70 per cent
subsidy for a set top box for those in need and steps that were planned to
assist people living with disabilities, such as subtitling and supers
describing background sound.
The
Committee was mindful that one of the major players in this process Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa has not presented their plan, to this end the Committee will
endeavour to create time in the fourth quarter.
The
Committee encouraged Doc to continue engaging other government departments and
entities to ensure minimisation of costs where possible for instance the
establishment of a conformance lab.
Members warned and requested DTI to take necessary steps to curb the
possible dumping of analogue television sets to the country, which might later
contribute to e-waste.
Another
briefing by the Department on the DTT State of Readiness was held for two days
from 27 – 28 November 2012. All the role players as identified by the
Department briefed the Committee about their readiness to DTT rollout.
An
important discussion was the current legal case by e.tv which threatened to
delay the project even further, thus extending the dual illumination period
with the associated running costs. While there were still funding issues, there
had been some improvements and the DoC would continue to work with entities and
National Treasury to ensure that this project was fully funded, and that the
funding and project delivery schedules were aligned.
Another
important deliberation of the briefing was Nemisa’s presentation focussed
specifically on training installers for the DTT roll-out process. The training
would happen in three phases of which the first would be the up-skilling of
existing DSTV installers. There were more than 1500 of them and they would be
trained to do the DTT installations, which did not differ much from DSTV
installations.
Concern
over the slow pace of transformation in the advertising industry prompted the
Committee to direct the Department of Communications (DoC) and the Government
Communication and Information System (GCIS) to facilitate a consultative
process with all stakeholders in 2002. A value statement was adopted in April
2003. Subsequently, extensive research, public dialogue and public hearings
were undertaken.
The
briefing document included an overview of the findings and conclusions from the
research reports commissioned by the MDDA. The report on “Trends of Ownership
and Control of Media in South Africa” was issued in 2009. It was found that
many small local newspapers were owned by private companies, which did not fall
within the definition of community media in the MDDA Act. A clear understanding
of what was meant by ‘community media’ was necessary.
The
Committee undertook oversight visits to the projects supported by the MDDA and
held public hearings during June 2011. A summary of the recommendations and the
progress that had been made in implementing the recommendations was included.
Consultation with various stakeholders in network organisations, industry
organisations, government entities and State-owned enterprises took place.
Government
advertising would be centralised within GCIS and an increased proportion of
government advertisements would be channelled to community media. Brand South
Africa had committed to allocating 25 per cent of advertising expenditure to
community media. The South African Post Office (SAPO) had launched an
advertising campaign involving community newspapers. The MDDA was monitoring
the efficacy of these campaigns and addressing the challenges that had arisen.
There were concerns over the operations of media brokers, which were not
subject to regulation.
The
implementation of the Marketing Advertising and Communication South Africa
(MACSA) Charter and the establishment of partnerships with the public and
private sectors were considered to be crucial to achieve the transformation of
the sector.
The key
issues that the Committee tackled over this period include (i) broadening and extending access to ICT
services to the public at more affordable rates; (ii) increasing job and
training opportunities in the ICT sector; (iii) improving the efficiency of the
regulatory authority; and (iv) ensuring greater and better co-ordination among
public entities and other stakeholders in ICT in preparation for DTT, Broadband
technologies.
The following pieces of
legislation were referred to the committee and processed during the 4th
Parliament:
The Committee undertook the legislative process to
pass predominantly technical amendments relating to the four Bills that were
referred to it for consideration. These include (i) the Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (ICASA) Amendment; (ii) Act Electronic Communications
Act (ECA); (iii) South African Postbank Limited Act; and (iv) South African
Post Office State-Owned Company Limited Amendment. In line with its (Committee)
mandate, public hearings were conducted to enable greater public and
stakeholder participation. These hearings are referred to in detail in the
following section 7.2 of this report.
In relation to the Banks Act, a slight challenge
occurred due the inadequate familiarity of the Committee and stakeholder
knowledge of the Banks Act. However a presentation from South African Reserve
Bank brought much-needed information. Brief summaries of all the amendments to
the legislation are provided below:
South African Postbank Limited Act was amended to review provisions that may negatively affect the
operational autonomy and independence of the Office for Banks; to remove any
inconsistencies with the Banks Act 2010; as well as to provide for matters
connected therewith;
South African Post Office State-Owned Company Limited Act 2011, was amended so as to (i) improve governance
provisions between the Boards of the South African Post Office SOC Ltd and the
South African Postbank Limited; (ii) to amend the Post and Telecommunication-related
Matters Act of 1958 so as to provide for the payment of pension benefits to a
former spouse of a member on divorce or the dissolution of a customary
marriage; as well as to provide for matters connected;
Independent Communications Authority Act 2000, was reviewed in order to insert new, amend existing
and repeal obsolete, definitions, (i) to provide for further clarity on the
powers and duties of the Authority; (ii) to introduce mechanisms to ensure the
accountability of the Authority, including that of councillors and committees;
and (iii) to confirm the use of electronic communications networks and services
for the purpose of electronic transactions and to provide matters connected
therewith; and
Electronic Communications Act 2005, was reviewed so as to insert, amend, and delete certain definitions;
(i) to align the Act with broad-based black economic empowerment legislation;
(ii) to refine provisions relating to licensing; (iii) to make further
provision towards ensuring effective competition amongst persons licensed under
the Act; (iv) to remove bottlenecks that require the Minister of Communications
to establish a council to advise the Minister on broadband policy and
implementation; (v) to make further provision for the discounted rate at which
Internet services must provided to schools, educational institutions and public
health establishments; (vi) to authorise the Minister to require that certain
information be submitted to the Minister; (vii) to make provisions for the
fiduciary duties of members of the Board of the Universal Service and Access
Agency of South Africa; (viii) to provide afresh for the appointment and
conditions of the chief executive officer of the Board; and (ix) to make
further provision for the utilisation of money in the Universal Service and
Access Fund, as well as to provide matters connected herewith.
In the main, it has been agreed to that more needs to be done to support
the liberalised market so that it can appropriately respond to the
socio-economic objectives of government. The amended legislation is part of a
larger process to transform the sector to support the economic activities and
promote socio-economic development.
Technology developments have necessitated the revisit of the Electronic
Communications Transaction Act (ECTA). The Department of Communications took a
lead in the process. The amended bill has been gazetted in 2013, and is
awaiting submission to Parliament.
It is procedural for the Committee before passing legislation to engage
the public at large and solicit input to the finalisation of the acts and or
amendments. For this reason, the Committee hosted public hearings from 01 – 04
October 2013 for the ECA and ICASA amendments. The summaries of submissions are
herewith attached as ‘ICASA_Submissions
Matrix and ECA Amendment Summaries Matrix.”
Over the period in review and in line with its Parliamentary duties, and
as articulated in detail in section 10 of this document, the Committee has had
to:
(i) Dissolve the SABC Board, interview and
recommend candidates to the President;
(ii)
Interview and recommend candidates for both
the SABC and MDDA Board of Directors to the President; and
(iii)
Interview
and recommending candidates for ICASA Council to the Minister of
Communications;
The Committee
also
(iv) Took lead in the transformation of media
and advertising print media sector; and
(v)
Championed
the transformation of the advertising industry.
During the term under review, there was a total of eleven (11) oversight
visits to all nine (9) provinces of the Republic. These were follow-up visits
to Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. The following gives a summary of the
proceedings provincially:
The oversight
visits by the Committee are in line with its role and the mandate as per: (i)
the Constitution; (ii) and the National Assembly Rules.
The
objective of the oversight visit served as the measurement indicator against
the service delivery commitment by the executives. The theme of these oversight
visits was “Touch, Feel and See” how
technology contributes to better the lives for all and amongst others the areas of focus were as follows:
(a) The
strides made in the progressive realization of rights as contained in section
16(1) (a) and (b) of the Bill of Rights: (i) Freedom of the media; and (ii)
Freedom to receive or impart information or ideas. To this end the Committee
visited Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) community media projects,
including those community broadcasters supported by Department of
Communications (the Department);
(b) Efficiency
of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in
licensing community broadcasting, and monitoring compliance of licensees with
license conditions, and other challenges in this sphere of broadcasting;
(c) The
role played by Sentech in signal distribution for broadcasting and challenges
they are facing in providing services to this Province;
(d)
To measure progress made by the
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in rolling out the low-powered
transmitters in collaboration with Sentech and ICASA; and
(e)
Successes and challenges: (i)
experience by Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) in
deploying Tele Centres for ICT services; and (ii) experience by South African
Post Office (SAPO) in rolling out postal outlets, addresses and functionality
of Public Internet Terminals (PITs); and (iii) rollout of telecommunications
and broadcasting infrastructure.
The
Committee undertook an oversight visit to Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal
Provinces on 28 March – 01 April 2011. Annexure titled “PCC
Recommendations Concerns from oversight visits and BRRR” (herewith attached) is the summary of recommendations
of the Committee and responses by the Department submitted to Committee 31 July
2013.
The
Committee undertook an oversight visit to Northern Cape and Free State
Provinces on 23 August 2011. Annexure titled
“PCC
Recommendations Concerns from oversight visits and BRRR” (herewith attached) is the summary of
recommendations of the Committee and responses by the Department submitted to
Committee 31 July 2013.
The
Committee undertook an oversight visit to Northern Cape and Free State
Provinces on 28 March – 08 November 2011. Annexure titled “PCC
Recommendations Concerns from oversight visits and BRRR” (herewith attached) is the summary of
recommendations of the Committee and responses by the Department submitted to
Committee 31 July 2013.
The Committee undertook an oversight visit to Northern Cape and Western Cape Provinces
on 17 – 20 January 2012. Annexure
titled “PCC
Recommendations Concerns from oversight visits and BRRR” (herewith attached) is the summary of
recommendations of the Committee and responses by the Department handed to the
Committee 31 July 2013.
The Committee undertook an oversight visit to Limpopo Province on 5 – 8 February 2012. Annexure titled “PCC Recommendations Concerns from oversight visits and BRRR” (herewith attached) is the summary of
recommendations of the Committee and responses by the Department handed to the
Committee 31 July 2013.
The
Committee undertook an oversight visit to Mpumalanga Province on 18 – 23 March
2012. Annexure titled “Consolidated Oversight Matrix With Responses”
and “PCC OVERSIGHT PROGRESS REPORT -
Mpumalanga & North West,” (herewith attached) is the summary of
recommendations of the Committee and responses by the Department dated 31 July
2013.
The
Portfolio Committee on Communications (the Committee) undertook an oversight
visit to the North West Province from 6 – 8 June 2012. Annexure titled “Consolidated
Oversight Matrix With Responses” and “PCC
OVERSIGHT PROGRESS REPORT - Mpumalanga & North West,” (herewith
attached) is the summary of recommendations of the Committee and responses by
the Department and its entities dated 31 July 2013.
The
Portfolio Committee on Communications (the Committee) undertook an oversight
visit to the Gauteng Province from 19 – 22 June 2012. The summary of recommendations of the Committee will be made available to
the members of 5th Parliament because the report was only adopted in
the month of March by the Committee.
The
Portfolio Committee on Communications (the Committee) undertook a follow-up
oversight visit to the Eastern Cape Province from 28 January – 1 February 2013.
The summary of recommendations of the Committee
will be made available to the members of 5th Parliament because the
report was only adopted in the month of March by the Committee.
The following oversight trips to Europe and
South America were undertaken:
(i) develop
an understanding of the governance and financing models of the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) System of broadcasting;
(ii) understand
the governance and operational model of the Office of Communication (OFCOM);
and
(iii) understand
how the UK manages its respective migration from analogue to digital
broadcasting.
The
Committee noted that the BBC is regulated by the BBC Trust, a body which also
plays a role as the broadcaster’s Board. While the private sector has to bid
for spectrum, the BBC gets allocated spectrum for free and is able to use it to
generate revenue for the corporation.
The DVB-T
digital standard is an acceptable choice for the country’s terrain. The BBC has
already implemented the latest version DVB-T2 to compress its current spectrum.
Government is also contributing towards the Digital Switchover Help Scheme for
the vulnerable. However, television owners buy their own STBs which range from
Ł20 per box and upwards.
(i) develop
an understanding of the governance and financing models of the Brazilian System
of Telecommunications;
(ii) understand
the governance and operational model of the Brazilian Agency of
Telecommunications (ANATEL); and
(iii) understand
how Brazil is managing its respective migration from analogue to digital
broadcasting.
In Brazil,
Anatel is not converged. Anatel’s remit is limited to technical
telecommunications issues. According to Anatel, policy-making for the ICT
sector, spectrum allocation and the regulation of the Broadcasting industry is
the responsibility of the Communications Ministry. The regulator is autonomous
and its decisions cannot be reversed by the Communications Minister. Brazil’s
public broadcasters are subject-specific.
Brazil has
adopted the ISDB-T digital standard. Its digital migration period is from 2007
to 2016 with the following features are available:
·
Royalty-free software or
middleware.
Brazilians
do not pay TV licenses and approximately 88 per cent of the population watch
free-to-air television. Brazil’s interest in South Africa adopting ISDB-T
standard is informed by its desire to strengthen its strategic economic
partnership with South Africa.
A combined report was adopted in September
2010.
In 2008,
the Cabinet approved a Digital Migration Policy (BDM) and the following
Technical Standards are approved:
·
DVB-T (EN 300 144) is adopted as the national standard for broadcasting
digital terrestrial television in South Africa.
·
DVB-S (EN 300421) is adopted as the national standard for broadcasting
digital satellite television in South Africa.
·
MPEG-4 is adopted as the
compression standard for South Africa’s Digital Terrestrial Television (OTT)
rollout, while existing direct-to-home (DTH) services continue to use MPEG-2
with the option to migrate to MPEG-4 when commercially viable.
In
line with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) resolutions by
Minsters representing ICT sector, a regional standard was adopted for
implementation as a DVB-T-2.
The
above-mention standard was based on the UK model and furthermore dictated that
the STBs shall be enabled to receive services from different platforms and
operators. STBs will have standardised operating systems prioritising security
features, interoperability and inter-connectability. For this reason the policy
provided for the STBs to have a control system to prevent STBs from being used
outside the borders of South Africa and to disable the usage of stolen STBs.
In
December 2012, the policy was revised and adopted by Cabinet. In the main, the
reason for this revision was to avoid challenges in implementing the digital
migration programme caused mainly by differences between broadcasters and
manufacturers relating to the use of a control system. The Department opted to
remove the mandatory Access Control on (STBs) except for those subsidised by
government as means to protect government investment.
Furthermore
the revised policy set a switch-on date to 01 April 2014 while the switch-off
date will be determined by the Minister after engagement with Cabinet and
stakeholders. The fully revised policy is available for 5th
Parliament members upon request.
The following appointment processes were referred to the committee and
the resultant statutory appointments were made:
MDDA Board |
|
November 2010 |
Louise Vale |
Nadia Bulbulia |
|
Phelisa Nkomo |
|
November 2011 |
Rene Alicia Smith |
|
Phenyo Nongane |
November 2012 |
Robert Nkuna |
Nothando Migogo |
|
November 2013 |
Roland Williams |
March 2014 |
Jimmy Manyi |
SABC Board |
|
June 2009 |
Board Dissolved
and Interim Board appointed. Thereafter a full board was appointed |
March 2011 |
Dr Sethe Patricia
Makhesha |
Dr John Sembie
Danana |
|
Cawekazi Mahlati |
|
Lumko Mtimde |
|
November 2011 |
Thami ka Plaatjie |
September 2012 |
Noluthando Gosa |
March 2013 |
Board Dissolved
and Interim Board appointed |
September 2013 |
Full Board
appointed |
December 2013 |
One Board member
resigned |
March 2014 |
Leah Thabisile
Khumalo |
ICASA |
|
October 2009 |
William Stucke
(reappointed in 2010) |
June 2010 |
Dr S Mncube |
Joseph Lebooa |
|
William Currie |
|
Ntomizodwa Ndhlovu |
|
November 2010 |
Marcia Socikwa |
September 2012 |
Nombuyiso Batyi |
Manyana Rubben Mohlaloga |
|
Katharina Gloria Pillay |
A petition
regarding the situation at Unitra Community Radio, submitted in terms of Rule
312 by Dr Z Luyenge, was referred to the Portfolio Committee on Communications
on Wednesday, 10 March 2010. The Portfolio Committee on Communications, having
considered the Petition regarding the situation at Unitra Community Radio,
reported as follows:
The
community was not happy about the following:
·
Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA) role.
Through
interaction with ICASA, the Portfolio Committee on Communications received an
update which it communicated to the affected community on 11 May 2010 that (i)
a charge sheet was drafted by the Compliance Unit for the Complaints and
Compliance Committee (CCC) to consider convening a hearing in respect of the
contraventions on matters of statutory obligations; (ii) a letter has been
written to the Unitra Community Radio Station Manager requesting a register and
minutes of the meeting where a resolution was taken to adopt a revised
Constitution; and (iii) the due process was taking its course in line with the
procedures. Lastly the Committee informed the community that it be informed of
any further developments.
In July 2011, SAPO employees sent the petition to the Office of the
Speaker of Parliament, Mr Max Sisulu, seeking the Parliament intervention on
the following matter:
·
Years
services performed as temporary employees with no opportunity to be full time;
·
Gross
neglect of procedural fairness concerning Permanent positions to staff working
as temps for two years;
·
Employment
of some SAPO temporary staff through the labour brokers; and
·
About 8000
staff members employed through labour
brokers demanded to directly appointed by SAPO.
The matter was subsequently referred to the Committee. The committee then engaged with SAPO to
redress and these engagements resulted in SAPO directly hiring the staff as the
first phase of employee integration. To date about 1 500 employees have been
integrated into the main stream employment.
The following key issues are recommended for
the 5th Parliament some of which are outstanding from Committee
activities during the 4th Parliament:
·
Members committed to afford reasonable and equal opportunity for
interactions between the Committee, the DoC and its entities, GCIS and its
entity, and Brand South Africa (BSA);
·
Profile
and develop an extensive stakeholder database (Stakeholder Matrix Development);
·
Systematise
Committee business processes, i.e. develop and implement a Management
Information Systems (MIS);
·
In light of the
workload of the Committee, it is apparent that the budget allocation must be
reviewed, for more rationale on the matter refer to Section 13 of this Report;
·
Based on the
experience of the work of the Committee which is unique in nature, it is
advisable that the Committee support staff is expanded in order to match the
increasing literature-intensive workload of the sector;
·
During the years
under review, the Committee undertook training in partnership with the WITS
Link Centre and specific to the sector. It is advisable that the training is
institutionalised for all members and staff who are to serve in this Portfolio;
·
Identify courses
and organise capacity development lessons for Members of Parliament and support
staff;
·
Oversight Booklet Formulation;
·
Continue to
realise the five key priority areas of the strategic planning
session; and
·
Appointment of a
second permanent female Committee secretary.
Based on Budget Review and Recommendations Reports (BRRR), oversight
visits, and Committee meetings, the DoC is expected to submit the following
reports which are still outstanding from those submitted:
·
Respond to
2012/13 BRRR recommendations;
·
Status report
following the President’s signed proclamation authorising the SIU to
investigate certain matters relating to the affairs of the Department;
·
Status report on the SABC Skills Audit;
·
Status report of SABC Public Protector Report;
·
Status report on SAPO SIU report;
·
Status report on Cost to Communicate programme
of ICASA;
·
Status report on the legal litigation by the
dominant operators (MTN and Vodacom) regarding the recently published Call
Termination Rates (CTRs);
·
Status report on price transparency issues;
·
Status report on Minister’s commitments to the
Committee;
·
A report
on the development of a comprehensive plan on ICT and disabilities, in addition
to the scope of the National Universal Access and Service strategy;
·
Status
report on the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) framework to the Committee;
·
Status
report on DTT State of Readiness;
·
Status report on
Broadband Policy implementation and Broadband Council;
·
Status report on
Spectrum Audit;
·
Status report on
cyber security initiatives by the Department;
·
Status report on ICASA Skills Audit;
·
Status Report on ICASA consumer advisory
panel;
·
Status report on USAASA investigations;
·
Status report on issues of people with disabilities
in terms of DTT;
·
Status report on launch of DTT in rural areas;
·
Status report on Auditor-General
recommendations;
·
Status report on role of Department as
identified in the Cabinet 2007 Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Policy; and
·
Parliament
should continue to engage National Treasury, the DoC and SAPO on the issue of
government subsidy of the entity.
The Committee noted with concern the issues
predominantly related to the digital dividend raised in the submissions made by
various organisations and individuals, see Annexure
on the Committee report of the hearings.
12.2.1.1 The Department
(i)
must present a progress report on
the Revised Programme of Action relating to the policy interventions presented
during the public hearings;
(ii)
must provide strategic leadership
and policy direction on how the sector players will be encouraged to provide
innovative and affordable data services to business, SMME’s, education
institutions, health sector; previously disadvantaged people, particularly
women and the general public as presented in paragraphs above; and
(iii)
in consultation with the Regulator
and USAASA, must investigate, conduct a benchmark study and compile a report to
be presented before the Committee, the viability and sustainability of
utilising the Universal Service and Access Fund (USAF) for the purpose of
subsidising rural connectivity, people with disabilities and the college
students classified as receiving grants. Furthermore the presentation should
investigate possibilities for creating or partnering industry to create
community-based ecosystems for SMMEs.
12.2.1.2 ICASA
(iv)
must expedite its Skills audit and
present before the Committee its findings prior to making it publicly
available;
(v)
must report to the Committee on
the processes to undertake to respond to the concerns it raised during the
public hearings regarding:
a.
The level of on- and off-net
tariff differential by Vodacom & MTN;
b. On-net
promotions by Vodacom & MTN could further increase in on- and off-net
differential; and
c. International
voice tariff less than national tariff (Cell C R0.85 international tariff,
Vodacom R0.89 international tariff) vs. R1.04 industry effective tariff); and
(vi)
ICASA must investigate and consult
with GSMA regarding its projections of Sub-Saharan Africa and report back to
the Committee on the validity of this model as reported by GSMA Mobile Economy
Report (2013).
·
Parliament
should regularly monitor how the DoC implements the Digital Migration Policy
and ensure that the television owners are adequately informed of the impact
that the process will have on the citizens of the country;
·
Parliament
should regularly monitor how the DoC implements the national Broadband Policy,
Spectrum Policy, Cost to Communicate Programme;
·
Parliament
should also request more detail on how the DoC will ensure that the subsidy on
the Set Top Boxes distributed equitably and will be allocated to deserving
television owners; and
·
The
committee should follow up on the integration of the remaining temporary
employees in the company.
The incoming Committee must further ensure that the following are in
place and are continuously monitored to improve the country’s rankings:
·
South Africa’s slip down the
international ‘e-readiness’ rankings which estimated that South Africa
experiences a shortage of over 70,000 Information Technology(IT) professionals
in 2008;[20]
·
The shortage of e-skills is even
more worrying because of the fact that the supply of ICT graduates is now
showing a decline, according to a published research by Accenture;[21]
·
e-skills are seen as vital in
addressing poverty, sustainable livelihoods, the fight against crime, building
cohesive communities, international cooperation, and building a developmental
state;
·
The objectives of the iNeSI should be
aligned with the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) 2014 – 2019 and
collaborative work with ISETT SETA;
·
Conduct an audit of what ICT
skills do government need, what does it have, and how will it bridge the gap
between the two;
·
What other
initiatives or programmes would the iNeSI implement in local government in harnessing ICT to up-skill and boost
service delivery;
·
President Obama’s administration
committed to provide all healthcare provider facilities, from the smallest
single doctor practice to the largest medical centres, will have an Electronic
Medical Record system installed and operational in their facility by 2014.
These are heavily reliant on e-skills. What strategies would the iNeSI use to
support the National Health Insurance;
·
The iNeSI, must acquire and develop
new marketing strategies to ensure that more people are aware of the e-skills
initiative and that people’s unique
e-skills and innovation capabilities can be harnessed further by the
organisation by speeding up the “e-Skills Knowledge Production Hubs” in
individual communities; and
·
The iNeSI should develop and work
with a network of researchers across the higher education sector, the private
sector, government, civil society and other role players to provide the
research based essential intelligence required for e-skilling in South Africa.
·
Respond to
2012/13 BRRR recommendations;
·
Status report on
community broadcasting services;
·
Status report on
transformation of the print media;
·
Status report on
the contribution framework by print media towards the MDDA
·
Status Report on
the Charter of the advertising industry;
·
Expedite the
process to fill funded vacancies;
·
Implementation
of 30 per cent of government advertising expenditure to community media;
·
Status report to
address issues raised by the Auditor General over the years;
·
Implementation
of curriculum and or national qualifications for government communicators; and
·
Implementation of
the online booking system to benefit community media.
·
Respond to
2012/13 BRRR recommendations;
·
Status report on
BSA and work with people with disabilities;
·
Status report on
BSA and social cohesion (domestic marketing);
·
Status report to
address issues raised by the Auditor General over the years; and
·
Prepare a
workshop to address the Committee on their mandate and activities.
Subsequent to the adoption of the UK broadcasting standard, South Africa
continues to enjoy a healthy relation with Brazil through the IBSA-Trilateral
as well as Bilateral relations. The relations continue to further partnerships
in the ICT arena and are spearheaded by the Department of Science and
Technology and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Recent bilateral interactions with Brazil seek to continue to promote
partnership in the broadcasting sector, particularly to promote research and
development based on STBs and the Open-Source-based middleware application
(Ginga) to be piloted in South Africa and on a DVB-T-II standard STB alongside
the native middleware platform for the adopted standard. The Department must
provide status report on activities relating to the bilateral partnership with
Brazil and the project on piloting of Ginga on STBs as indicated in section
7.4.4 of this report.
Parliament should continue to monitor the Department of Communications,
the Regulator and its entities’ progress of implementing the four amended bills
(ICASA, SAPO, Post Bank and ECA which were amended into laws.
The
Committee held its strategic planning workshop from 2-3 February 2010. It
identified the following as the key areas of strategic focus/importance for the
period 2010 – 2014:
(i)
Key Policy
Thrusts/Initiatives for the Future;
(ii)
Enhance Committee Oversight
Functions;
(iii)
Educate and Empower
Committee Members;
(iv)
Strengthen Administrative
Support within Committee;
(v)
Monitoring and Evaluation
of Committee Programme; and
(vi)
Strengthen Research
Capacity within Committee.
The
Portfolio Committee again held its strategic plan workshop on the 17 to 19 of
April 2013. The aim was to inform the Portfolio Committee on its annual plan
for 2013/14 financial year. The workshop further developed and outlined
priorities for the Committees 2013/14 financial year’s programme.
There were
five Key Priority Areas adopted by the Committee and are summarised below:
Committee
Strategic Priority Focus Areas |
|
Priority
Focus Area I |
1. DoC
Oversight |
2. State
Owned Entity Oversight |
|
3.
Provincial Oversight visits |
|
Priority
Focus Area II |
1.
Stakeholder Matrix Development |
2.
Sectoral Consultations |
|
3.
Oversight Booklet Formulation |
|
Priority
Focus Area III |
1.
Legislative Review Processes |
2.
Policy Review Process |
|
Priority
Focus Area IV |
1.
Business Reengineering Recapitalisation |
Priority
Focus Area V |
1. Cost
to Communicate |
Over the period in review, it is evident that the Committee activities
far-supersede the budget allocation, see Table below. For that matter the
allocated budget is always exhausted by the third quarter of each financial
year with the exception of the 2012/13 financial year where the budget was
exhausted by the end of first quarter of the financial year.
PCC Budget Allocation for 4th
Parliament |
|||||
|
2009-2010 |
2010-2011 |
2011-2012 |
2012-2013 |
2013-2014 |
Allocated |
R 500 000.0 |
R 700 000.0 |
R 888 000.0 |
R 777 000.0 |
R 1 200 000.0 |
Spent |
R 507 262.0 |
R 786 742.0 |
R 1 049 703.0 |
R 1 349 707.0 |
R 1 391 692.0 |
Overspend |
R -7 262.0 |
R -86 742.0 |
R -161 703.0 |
R -572 707.0 |
R -191 692.0 |
In the past, Parliament’s allocation of budget to Committees was a
one-size-fit-all approach in its attempt to spread budgetary requirements
across all committees. However now that the Parliament Budget office has been
established, it is with hope that the ICT sector, as a highly
resource-intensive sector, will be considered differently as it does require
special allocation and attention because of the catalytic nature of ICT’s and
its impact to the entire economy. For this purpose, it is therefore advisable
that the Budget Office emulates the Treasurer Regulations and methodology of
allocation of budgets to Departments in order to ensure that the work of the
Committee on Communications is not compromised in the future.
Annexures
are available from the Committee Secretary, Mr Thembinkosi Ngoma upon request.
He can be contacted on: Cell 0837098407 Tel: 0214033733 Email:
[email protected]
16.
Glossary of Terms
|
|
AENE |
Adjusted Estimate of National Expenditure |
AFCON |
African Cup of Nations |
AG |
Auditor-General |
APP |
Annual Performance Plan |
AU |
African Union |
BBC |
British Broadcasting Corporation |
BDM |
Digital Migration Policy |
BRICS |
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa |
BRRR |
Budget
Review and Recommendations Report |
BSA |
Brand South Africa |
CA |
Council
of Administration |
CAPEX |
Capital
Expenditure |
CTRs |
Call
Termination Rates |
CIO |
Chief
Information Officer |
COGTA |
Department
of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs |
COSATU |
Congress of South African Trade Unions |
DAC |
Department
of Arts and Culture |
DBE |
Department
of Basic Education |
DHET |
Department
of Higher Education and Training |
DoC |
Department
of Communications |
DPSA |
Department
of Public Service and Administration |
DST |
Department
of Science and Technology |
DTI |
Department
of Trade and Industry |
DTT |
Digital
Terrestrial Television |
FOSS |
Free and Open Source Software |
FTRs |
Fixedline Termination Rates |
GCIS |
Government Communication and Information System |
GDP |
Gross
Domestic Product |
GRAP |
Generally Recognised Accounting Practice |
ICASA |
Independent
Communications Authority of South Africa |
ICT |
Information
Communication Technology |
ISSA |
Institute
for Software and Satellite Applications |
IMC |
International Marketing Council |
MACSA |
Marketing Advertising and Communication South Africa |
MDDA |
Media Development and Diversity Agency |
MIS |
Management Information Systems |
MTRs |
Mobile Termination Rates |
MTSF |
Medium Term Strategy Framework |
NABSA |
National Association of Broadcasters in South
Africa |
NDP |
National Development Plan |
NEMISA |
National
Electronic Media Institute of South Africa |
NEPAD |
New
Partnership for Africa’s Development e-Africa Commission |
NeSPA |
National
eSkils Plan of Action |
NGP |
National
Growth Path |
NCS |
National
Communication Strategy |
NYDA |
National Youth Development Agency |
NWB |
National Wireless Broadband |
OECD |
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
OFCOM |
Office of Communication |
PAIA |
Promotion of Access to information Act |
PCC |
Portfolio Committee on
Communications |
PFMA |
Public Finance Management Act |
PNC |
Presidential National Commission |
PITs |
Public Internet Terminals |
PPPFA |
Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act |
PPR |
Preferential Procurement Policy |
PMSA |
Print
Media of South Africa |
SABC |
South
African Broadcasting Corporation |
SABS |
South African
Bureau of Standards |
SADC |
Southern African Development Community |
SAPO |
South
African Post Office |
SCM |
Supply Chain Management |
SCOA |
Standing Committee on Appropriations |
SKA |
Square Kilometre Array |
SOCs |
State
Owned Companies |
SOEs |
State
Owned Entities |
SoNA |
State-of-the-Nation Address |
STB |
Set Top
Box |
The
Institute |
NEMISA |
TR |
Treasury Regulations |
UK |
United Kingdom |
USAASA |
Universal
Service and Access Agency of South Africa |
USAF |
Universal
Service and Access Fund |
USO |
Universal
Service Obligations |
UPU |
Universal Postal Union |
WAN |
Wireless
Access Networks |
WST |
Wholesale
Call Termination |
.zaDNA |
.zaDNA |
[1] Broadly defined, a developmental state brings about rapid and sustainable transformation in a country’s economic and/or social conditions through active, intensive and effective intervention in the structural causes of economic or social underdevelopment. (Source: http://www.npconline.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=54)
[2] Gillwald, A, et al (2012).
[3] Abrahams, T. Goldstuck, G. (2011).
[4] Department of Communications (2012) Strategic Plan 2012/13.
[5] However, sector growth is dependent on growth in other sectors such as financial services, wholesale and retail, hotels and restaurants and will fluctuate with national developments in these sectors.
[6] Broadband[6] has become a key priority of the 21st Century, and its transformative power as an enabler for economic and social growth makes it an essential tool for empowering people, creating an environment that nurtures the technological and service innovation, and triggering positive change in business processes as well as in society as a whole. Increased adoption and use of broadband in the next decade and beyond will be driven by the extent to which broadband-supported services and applications are not only made available to, but are also relevant and affordable for consumers. And while the benefits of broadband-enabled future are manifest, the broadband revolution has raised up new issues and challenges.
[7] Measuring Information Society (2013).
[8] International Telecommunications Union (2012a).
[9] Ericsson (2012).
[10] See http://www.ericsson.com/news.
[11] World Wide Worx, (2012).
[12] InternetWorldStats (2013).
[13] Ibid.
[14] Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (2010).
[15] In addition, in the last five years, the combination of wireless technology and broadband service is taking service adoption from the household to the individual user.
[16] Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (2012)
[17] It is important to note that these figures are mainly for SOEs and private companies that have responded to the Department’s questionnaire on Job creation.
[18] Department of Communications (2011); Department of Communications (2012); and Department of Communications(2013) Annual Reports.
[19] Brand South Africa (2013) Annual Report.
[20] ITWeb (2008)
[21] Accenture( 2008)