Marian Shinn. Image courtesy of The Democratic Alliance.
South Africa’s ruling party the African National Congress (ANC) is “oblivious” to the value of technology in developing a dynamic economy and believes ICT serves only to propagate government messages to the public, according to Marian Shinn, shadow minister of telecommunications and postal services for opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA).
HumanIPO reported on Wednesday newly re-elected president Jacob Zuma made his State of the Nation Address (SONA), heralding the investment pumped into ICT infrastructure over his past term in office but admitting the next five years must see ICT infrastructures expanded and modernised.
The SONA came six weeks after Zuma’s re-election, following which the president appointed a new Cabinet, which also saw the creation of a new department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, alongside a separate Department of Communications.
Shinn today told HumanIPO the limited mention of ICT in the speech shows Zuma and the ANC at large do not appreciate the importance of ICT in supporting business and building the economy, but rather view technology as a facilitator of message distribution.
“It also showed that the ANC continues to be oblivious to the the value ICT can give the economy in supporting dynamic enterprises to reach local and international markets and collaborate on global projects, job creation, SMME development and e-government delivery,” said Shinn.
“They think communications is about broadcasting and message dissemination. They see the internet as a means of delivering email and engaging on social media platforms.
“My fear is that Telecommunications and Postal Services will be viewed by them as the ICT and logistics department of government (as a priority) with sector needs tagging along with whatever government sees best for its own needs.”
Shinn said the creation of two separate departments dealing with overlapping issues has caused much disruption across the sector, given there is unclarity about what falls under each department’s remit, and that the ANC is now dealing with the fallout from the Cabinet changes.
“The ANC still has no clue what it wants to do with ICT departments and that the decision to split the department was an impulsive decision to create an extra Cabinet post, so little thought was given to how the split would affect the the administration and budgeting of the new departments,” Shinn said.
“I was told on Tuesday night that negotiations are continuing in the ANC and departments’ leadership about what entities are going where and where the programmes will sit. This means huge disruption for the sector as it awaits policy finalisation on DTT and spectrum in particular and the ICT policy review in general,” the shadow minister said.
According to Shinn, this disruption was reflected in Zuma’s speech, in the extent to which the ICT sector was ignored and marginalised in his speech.
“Generally, the brevity with which the president dealt with ICT indicated that the president didn’t know what to say about the disruption he has caused. He didn’t know what to commit to.”
