DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

PRESENTATION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT TO THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON LABOUR AND PUBLIC ENTERPRISES
27 JANUARY 2004

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

· 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

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 Bo 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
· 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

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 SAPO's major liabilities, pension funds medical aids

· Reposition SAPO to play a meaningful role in the disbursements of social grants

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

2002/03 MULTIMEDIA
Promulgation of Broadcasting amendment Act which, amongst others:
- Requires the development of policies in line with the public broadcaster's social obligations
Act which, amongst

- 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 Act.

ADVISORY BODIES REPORTS

· Appointed to advise Government and the Department of Communications on the following issues:
- Issues relevant to the introduction of digital broadcasting in South Africa
- All issues pertaining to development, utilisation 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

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

· 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 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.

Recommendation
· 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 Specialised Agencies,
· financing and marketing strategies.
· Postal Regulator
· Shareholder Management
- Signing of Shareholder compacts

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 United Nations to support the NEPAD ICT initiatives

INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

· Recruited 23 interns (of which fifteen are women)
· Interns attached to various units of the Department of Communications 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

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
· Finalised business plans for Rhino Recording Studios

KEY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
. Convergence Policy
· Connecting South Africa
· Underserviced area licences
· 112 emergency project
· Edunet
· BEE
· Inculcating Culture of Savings
· Content and Language

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