DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

1
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

• PRESENTATION OF ANNUAL REPORT TO
• THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS
• 14 NOVEMBER 2003

2
MISSION

• To enable ordinary people to have access to
  traditional media and the convenience of
  information technology

3
VISION

• Improve the lives of ordinary South Africans
  whilst contributing to economic growth
• Make South Africa a knowledge based society and
  help create an information economy

4
2002/03 TELECOMMUNICATIONS

• Telkom IPO on JSE and NYSE
• Promulgation of Electronic and Communications law
• Trust center that safeguards the interests of the
  state and public has been established
• publication of a tender for the maintenance of a
  critical databases for national security of the
  country
• Invitations to Apply for the nominations of the
  Board of Directors for the .ZA domain name
• Panel selected by Minister of Communications
• Economic Growth and Foreign Direct Investment
• Investment by MTN and Vodacom in Nigeria and
  Congo respectively
• Increase in local mobile lines by 2,5 million

5
2002/03 TELECOMMUNICATIONS

• Invitations to apply for the Universal Under
  Services area Licenses issued
• Awareness camping held in all provinces
• Public comments received by 31/03/03
• Building and construction for the 112 center
  commenced in November 2002
• Tender to equip the 112 center issued

6
2002/ 03 POSTAL UNIT

• Repositioning of SAPO to
• Enable SAPO to recapture niche markets between
  SAPO and bulk mailers
• Review of current transport and logistics
  strategy to substitute it with a cost effective
  one
• Capping of SAPOs major liabilities, pension
  funds and medical aids
• Reposition SAPO to play a meaningful role in the
  disbursements of social grants

7
2002/03 POSTAL UNIT

• Reposition post bank to
• Become bank of choice for the lower income groups
  and the poor
• Contribute to household savings
• Offer short term loans
• Enlarge the base for national savings
• Facilitate social grants payments
• Offer any other third party financial services

8
2002/03 POSTAL UNIT

• Appointment of the chairperson of the postal
  regulator
• Finalized the postal tariff review
• Appointed a mystery shopper to investigate the
  quality of postal services of SAPO
• Successfully handled 75 of the 91 complaints
  received

9
2002/ 03 MULTIMEDIA

• Promulgation of Broadcasting amendment Act which,
  amongst others
• Requires the development of policies in line with
  the public broadcasters social obligations
• Provides clear mandate to the SABC as a public
  broadcaster
• Provides for the conversion of the SABC to a
  Public Company
• Will improve the accountability by the SABC board
  and management
• Provides for the splitting of the SABC into a
  public broadcasting services and commercial
  services
• Establishes two subcommittees of the board to
  focus on managing different mandates
• Joint task team established to manage
  implementation of the Act.

10
ADVISORY BODIES REPORTS

• Appointed to advise Government the Department
  of Communications on the following issues
• Issues relevant to the introduction of digital
  broadcasting in South Africa
• All issues pertaining to development, utilization
  and approach of broadcast content production in
  South Africa.
• Recommendations have been submitted by the two
  bodies and the Department has submitted its
  recommendations to Cabinet

11
ADVISORY BODIES REPORTS

• The Digital Advisory Body Made Recommendations on
  the following issues
• Policy and Legislative processes
• Regulatory and licensing issues
• Frequency spectrum planning
• Network and coverage planning
• Technical Standards
• International Participation and Relations
• Detailed migration plan
• Economic feasibility study
• Consumer research
• Technical aspects requiring further analysis

12
ADVISORY BODIES REPORTS

• The South African Broadcast Production Advisory
  Body Made Recommendations on the following
  issues
• strategic interventions that are critical to the
  improvement of production and broadcasting of
  South African content.
• the establishment or realignment of existing
  specialised institutions to build the required
  capacity
• strategic issues that require further
  interventions in order to expand the production
  and display of South African content in both the
  South African and international markets.

13
ADVISORY BODIES REPORTS

• recommendations
• interventions at both the South African and
  external markets.
• situations that warrants immediate redress.
• meeting the needs of the African continent for
  relevant programming.
• new policy measures,
• structures or Specialized Agencies,
• financing and marketing strategies.

14

• Postal Regulator
• Shareholder Management
• Signing of Shareholder compacts

15
INTERNATIONAL

• Collaborating with the NEPAD task team and the
  e-Africa commission to formulate projects to
  bridge the digital divide
• Launch of SAT-3 cable by Minister and President
  Wade of Senegal
• Instrumental in the decision by ITU to support
  the NEPAD ICT initiatives
• Instrumental in the decision by UN to support the
  NEPAT ICT initiatives

16
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

• Recruited 23 interns (of which fifteen are women)
  
• Interns attached to various units of the DoC for
  period of up to three months at a time
• Introduced interns to the ICT sector covering
  issues of policy, economics and technology
• Provided workshops to introduce interns to policy
  instruments developed and administered by DoC
• Arranged visits to industry by interns
• Arranged Lecture by Wits University on space law

17
2002/ 03 OTHER

• Programme Production for Community sector
• Skills Development and Training in basic and
  advanced multimedia skills (ISSA NEMISA)
• Initiation of Language Portal Programme
• Installation of 15 community stations
• Development of programming hubs in 9 provinces
• Finalized business plans for Rhino Recording
  Studios

18
KEY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• Convergence Policy
• Connecting South Africa
• Underserviced area licences
• 112 emergency project
• Edunet
• BEE
• Inculcating Culture of Savings
• Content and Language

19
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

• Fully functional Audit Unit established
• Fully functional Audit Committee
• Audit Committee chaired by independent person
• Establishment of a General Managers Forum
• Undertook risk assessment of the department
• Developed a fraud prevention plan under guidance
  of fraud committee

20
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

• THANK YOU