Madam Speaker, hon members of the House, ladies and gentlemen, the amendment Bill before us arises out of the recent experiences we have had of our inability to significantly lower the cost to communicate, of increasing access to, and the affordability of information and communications technologies.
One of the challenges South Africa and many other African countries faced was that sufficient investment in the infrastructure was not occurring. At a summit held in Kigali, Rwanda, on Connect Africa, sponsored by the African Union and the International Telecommunications Union - ITU - at which seven heads of state participated, it became abundantly clear that 55% of the unconnected population of the continent will not become connected unless we create new models and especially have governments intervening.
This was in line with our thinking as expressed in this amendment Bill. While the World Economic Forum readiness index had found our policies to be some of the best among our peers in developing countries, the World Economic Forum found we were low on uptake and usage of ICTs. This amendment Bill facilitates the intervention by government to ensure that strategic infrastructure investment is provided to extend access to and affordability of, information and communication technologies services. It also provides a framework for ICASA - our regulator - for licensing a public entity to achieve the strategic intention of reduction of costs and the extension of access and affordability.
This thinking is a paradigm shift in the sector not only in South Africa but throughout the continent. Throughout the continent, several questions have arisen to which this proposal responds. The questions that were asked were provided by the private and public sector, as well as by the regulatory bodies. The questions are: What is it that we must do, given that rural areas are usually not seen as a market for private sector investment?
Satellite coverage is a possible solution for these areas. But satellite is too expensive. So, what should we do? The kind of partnership and funding models and mechanisms for absorbing whatever funds we have, have not been appropriate. What is it that we can do?
The overwhelming answer and consensus of all the different stakeholders, those from the private sector, namely operators, satellite providers, IT equipment and device manufacturers, etc, to the Development Financial Institutions as well as governments, was: African governments should invest in the building or provision of broadband infrastructure, including wireless broadband and especially the most efficient and less expensive.
Government should provide frameworks for sharing common infrastructure, access points, spectrum, devices, content and knowledge, especially in poor and under serviced areas, in order to meet our Millennium Development Goals. That government should help to reduce the costs of doing business and improve affordability by all while not suppressing but encouraging competition.
This amendment Bill does just that. It does not suppress competition but allows for strategic intervention by government, where the market fails while providing a framework for licensing in such circumstances.
The shrinking pool of investment capital and the failed initiatives by the private sector to address the issues of costs to communicate, has led us to these critical steps of amending the Electronic Communications Act in line with the concept of a developmental state.
The process within the parliamentary committee has been very thorough and I thank all members of the portfolio committee for diligently engaging with the amendment. I also thank the ICT sector operators and the regulator for giving opinions, advice that generally was not violently opposed to the Bill and for accepting the principle of the need for strategic government intervention that can spur competition in the expansion of ICT access and services. I thank, particularly, the new chairperson of the committee, Comrade Vadi for his demonstrated leadership in steering this Amendment Bill through in such a tight schedule, especially in an area he had not been as familiar as the previous chairperson.
Finally, I'd like to thank my departmental staff, especially Ms Mashile Matlala and the policy section under which she has worked very closely with my deputy. They have worked round the clock to ensure the passage of this Bill.
I would like to urge this House to pass this Bill, which will assist us in bringing the advantages of ICTs closer to our people and achieve some of the Millennium Developmental Goals for our country. I thank you.