PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO: 861
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 11 March 2011
QUESTION PAPER NO: 06
DATE OF REPLY: 22 July 2011
Ms JD Killian (Cope) to ask the Minister of Communications:
Whether her departmentâs task teams that were established to draw up a
programme for the (a) improvement of the countryâs telecommunications and
(b) rolling out of broadband before 31 December 2011 in the urban areas
have (i) finalised their work and (ii) achieved their intended objectives;
if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?    Â
  NW937E
REPLY:
a) This is a general telecommunications question. Currently there are
many initiatives pertaining to broadband, e-schools and e-health
projects to be finalised in terms of budget, and service provider
allocation in the new financial year (1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012),
which will contribute to the improvement of the countryâs
telecommunications network. This will address both rural and urban
areas.
b) Currently there are three initiatives:
I. Broadband Inter-Governmental Committee(BBIC): This has been
established with the key objective of establishing an
implementation plan, and to involve all stakeholders within
Government. Emanating from the BBIC are seven workgroups that
focuses on various aspects of broadband such as: Increase Access,
Affordability, Uptake and Usage, Digital Literacy, Local Content,
Government Services and Funding.
II. National Broadband Implementation Plan:Â We will utilise current
broadband statistics and broadband gap analyses as a baseline, and
develop a National broadband Implementation Plan to address the
gaps. We will utilise our existing State Owned Entities, such as
Sentech and Broadband Infraco to implement broadband.
III. Broadband Pilots: Currently we have already engaged Kwazulu-Natal
on a broadband rollout plan. We are now at the stage of allocating
work to the SOEs Sentech and Broadband Infraco to perform this
initial pilot rollouts. We are also starting engagements with
Limpopo Provinceâs broadband plan with a similar broadband rollout
project. These pilots, together with the service providerâs inputs
above, will be used to develop the national broadband
implementation plan. These are all included in the business plan
for the 11/12 financial year.