Hon Chairperson, hon Members of Parliament and fellow South Africans, Karl Marx and Engels once wrote about modern capitalist civilisation, saying that it was characterised by an existential status of permanent uncertainty. They said that nothing is solid. In a classic statement, they said in the Communist Manifesto in 1848:

All that is solid melts into air ...

That is true, particularly when it comes to the transformation of information and communication technologies. There is no aspect of capitalist modernity that has been transformed with so much speed and with such wide-ranging consequences as communication technologies. Communication technologies have radically collapsed space and time for human connectivity more than in any age we know of.

Mass production of information and communication technologies is indeed the shining dream of capitalist modernity, from television, cellphones and radio to Internet technologies. The classic factor, unlike in the locomotive, industrial or construction sectors, is that ICT is at the centre of human development and advancement of knowledge, in order to move from generation to generation and from country to country, with speed and precision.

This makes communication one of the most critical components in order for vulnerable communities, for example, to have the ability to be self- sufficient. No human freedom can be imagined any more without the freedom of access to information. You are not free unless you are free to know!

The foundation of our critique of the business that will be located in this department is precisely this. To what extent does it advance access to information, particularly in the light of the capitalist hunger and greed to turn everything into private profiteering for a few individuals?

The roll-out of low-power transmitters, the roll-out of digital terrestrial television and information technology storage or disaster recovery plans are urgently needed.

Sentech, the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, and the SA Broadcasting Corporation have yet collectively to demonstrate competence in meeting deadlines in the administration and sustenance of the inevitable digital age that is upon us. We face the danger of being held back, when others advance to a competent future. The world is, as Engels put it, in "constant flux" and we have to keep up with real speed.

As things stand, the missing link in the drama of the planning for and strategising about ICT by government is how we as a country can immediately claim self-sufficiency in the production of these technologies, particularly electronics. For instance, many of the entities can't tell us how many of these technologies will be produced here in South Africa in 5 or 10 years.

Even if we were to achieve rolling out 100% of broadband penetration by 2020 through massive broadband infrastructure development, the devices that are needed to access all these products are still produced outside the country, for instance, TV sets, radios, cellphones and computer sets, as well as tablets. [Interjections.]