Chairperson, it is my pleasure to introduce on behalf of the committee the Budget debate on communications. My colleagues in the ANC will speak on the specific entities linked to the Department of Communications, such as Sentech, the SABC, the South African Post Office and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa. So, I will focus mainly on the department itself and some broader policy challenges facing our country.
Let me firstly extend a hearty welcome to Minister Nyanda and the Deputy Minister, Mrs Dina Pule. In the short while that I have worked with them, I found the Minister to be as straight as an arrow and intellectually alert, and even his physique resembles an arrow. [Laughter.] [Applause.] He displays a quiet disposition, but he is extremely focused with regards to performance delivery.
Likewise, the Deputy Minister is an assertive leader, an effective communicator and an excellent team player. Together they have certainly brought new vigour and vitality in the ministry and the Department of Communications. This bodes well for the broader information and communications technology, ICT, sector, which for some time has been lacking in overall political and strategic leadership.
In my past experience with the department, I found it to be administratively tardy. Government policy formulation trailed behind the private and academic sectors, and it lacked in overall coherence. It was overly concentrated in the feeble hands of the former director-general. But I must say I was pleasantly surprised two weeks ago when the department appeared before the committee to submit its strategic plans and budget. There was a greater clarity of purpose, better focus and a more incisive statement of strategic objectives. The acting director-general and her team were also more forthcoming in their responses to the questions and queries raised by members of the committee than was the case previously. I wish to thank the department for its new sense of transparency and openness, and I hope this will be the trend which will be strengthened in future.
There are, however, a few areas of concern that I wish to raise. At a broader level, the ICT sector, which can play a decisive role in stimulating economic growth, has been in distress for some time. It has literally loomed from crisis to crisis, from the governance debacle at the SABC to a muddled regulatory process at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa. And while telecommunications operators and private shareholders have made super profits and billions more is being spent on urban-based fibre infrastructure, the vast majority of our citizens are left behind on the dirt tracks of the information highway. Many of our people do not enjoy ICT services and have to pay high costs for the use of their cellphones and internet.
In last year's debate, I raised concerns about the obscenely high cost of telecommunications and internet access in our country. I pointed out that the same obscenity is evident in the current interconnect fees. More recent research, as the Minister has indicated, has once again confirmed that, when compared to other middle-income developing countries, such as Brazil, Peru and Mauritius, for example, we are falling way behind in cost reductions. The nasty effects of this are a drag on our economic growth, losing out on offshore business processing opportunities, the absence of real innovation in the sector and a lack of field competition in the market. In the face of the growing poverty in our society, the time has come for us to act against conduct in the private sector that is not morally and socially defensible. The second issue I wish to raise is the issue of digital migration. What we've heard from the Minister is that Cabinet resolved last year that the digital switch-on will commence 1 November 2008 and the switch-off will happen three years later. The committee has gathered from Sentech that it now anticipates a longer period for digital migration. It does seem that the original three-year plan might not be sustainable here. Should we not be more realistic about are our deadlines, given the challenges that we facing in this country? I'm just posing a question; I'm not saying that we should. I say this as the challenges and the tasks are huge: Firstly, we will have to roll out a new terrestrial broadcasting network and Sentech has not met its targets to date; secondly, digital migration increases costs considerably as we have to relay a signal on two, as opposed to one network; and thirdly, there is an added cost to consumers, who have to purchase the set-top boxes without which they will not receive the digital signal. And we already know that more than half the existing television households will require subsidies for these boxes.
The department will have to embark on the set-top box subsidy scheme for some five million needy households. The logistics of this operation will require careful planning, strong project management and the co-operation of various state and governmental actors. It is likely to be one of the biggest social help schemes that government will ever embark on. The department, which hitherto has no real experience in providing services on such a large scale, has to plan very carefully. As in a project of this magnitude, failure will be costly. Under these circumstances, it might be advisable for the Ministry, together with the department, Sentech and other stakeholders, to carefully review the timeframes and to assess their validity. Ultimately, all of us will have to throw our support behind this national project to ensure its success.
Finally, I wish to indicate that we believe, as a committee, that we are poised at the moment of new opportunities. The impending arrival of the Seacom undersea cable will increase our international bandwidth fivefold. The unanticipated granting of telecommunication licenses to all internet service providers opens the possibility for some of them at least to build their own networks. It is possible that the new generation of service providers will be able to introduce business models that were not possible before. Small and medium enterprises are also rapidly migrating from slow dial-up connections to faster ADSL lines. And preparations for the Fifa 2010 World Cup have spurred mega investments in broadband networks, which can be used in future for a range of municipal-based e-services in health, education, commerce and local economic development. On the horizon, the Meraka e-Skills Institute will offer more specialised training opportunities for our youth so that they are better able to link with the world of work.
Our committee believes that with the new team in the Ministry, the imminent appointment of a new director-general, and a reinvigorated portfolio committee, it is possible to take significant advantage of the opportunities that stare us in the face. What we now need is a new paradigm and a new way of delivering on our public service mandate. We need sharper vision, absolute clarity on our policy objectives and the sheer will to implement these policies efficiently and effectively. A qualitative change and leap is possible, and government must intervene to ensure that we ride the new wave. The question that I want to leave the House with, is whether other role-players in civil society and the private sector can rise to this challenge? The ANC supports this Vote. [Applause.]