South Africa’s Department of Communications (DoC) has said it has been consulting with government bodies and state-owned companies on the implementation of the SA Connect broadband policy, with minister Yunus Carrim highlighting the disparity in connectivity around the county.
The DoC said it has seen significant progress since HumanIPO reported in December last year on the implementation of the National Broadband Policy, Strategy and Plan, dubbed SA Connect, which hopes to provide connectivity to all South Africans by 2020.
The DoC said since the plan’s inception it had connected over 780 schools across the country.
“We have been engaging with the provinces, municipalities, the South African Local Government Association and the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department about this. This synergy, understandably, will take time, but is certainly beginning to happen,” said Carrim.
“We need to move with speed on broadband, but we also have to be sensible and effective. There is considerable unevenness in the delivery of broadband across the country and while we must encourage local initiatives we need to synergise our efforts under SA Connect to ensure maximum benefits from broadband for the country as a whole.”
A meeting of the Strategic Integrated Project (SIP) 15, which focused on “Expanding Access to Communication Technology”, was held yesterday.
The DoC said the event was attended by representatives of the three spheres of government as well as state-owned companies were present and was held to host discussions on taking the plan further.
“We have made significant progress since December on broadband, but we still have a long way to go. We need public-private and other partnerships, and with the cooperation of all the stakeholders we’ll get there. We have to,” Carrim said.
