[ad_1]
The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, met with senior executives from her department this week to discuss a performance agreement that she signed with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The agreement sets out a series of targets that Ndabeni-Abrahams is expected to meet in the coming years in terms of access to Internet services in South Africa.
The performance agreement with the president is legally binding and will be used to measure the success of the department. The objectives of the agreement include the following:
- 80% of the population should have access to the Internet by 2024;
- Policy direction regarding 5G must be issued before December 2021;
- A reduction in the cost of data must be achieved;
- Monitoring of Icasa and ensuring that the regulator has adequate resources to license the 4G spectrum;
- Repositioning of the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) to promote the use of local technologies;
- Completion of the deployment of decoders and shutdown of analog transmitters for the Digital Broadcasting Migration project for 2021, and reordering of the radio-frequency spectrum.
“There is a commitment that the chairmen of the board and the executive directors of the respective entities will work closely together to leverage each other’s strengths and collaborate on key projects to avoid duplication.
“I must add that their commitment was quite encouraging,” said Ndabeni-Abrahams.
He added that the government has embarked on a state-owned enterprise (SOE) rationalization plan, which will see the department embark on a process to merge some of its entities.
State signal distributor SENTECH will merge with Broadband Infraco to form a state broadband infrastructure company.
The .Zadna domain name authority, the Publishing and Film Board and ICASA will merge to form a single regulator. South Africa’s Universal Service and Access Agency will be reused to establish a state-owned digital fund company.
“These mergers are in line with President Ramaphosa’s announcement in this year’s State of the Nation Address that the government will undertake a process of streamlining state-owned enterprises, to ensure that they serve strategic economic or development purposes.” Ndabeni-Abrahams said.
Read: DStv adds Amazon Prime Video to a new set-top box
[ad_2]
