No achievement in SA communications: Gordhan
Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan has said that there has been no mid-year progress in a number of areas within South Africa’s communications department, particularly where it relates to set-top box progress, the creation of ICT hubs, jobs, and broadband penetration.
In delivering his medium-term budget, Gordhan said that the said there has been no achievement on the number of small, medium and micro ICT enterprise hubs created in each province within the first six months of the year, due to budgetary constraints as funding earmarked for this has been reallocated to other priorities.
“There is no achievement to date on the number of e-cooperatives established to increase the entry of youth owned small enterprises into the ICT sector, because the e-cooperatives programme has been removed from the department’s strategic plan, due to budgetary constraints in the current financial year,” the National Treasury said.
It also pointed out that there is no integrated figure for broadband penetration as categories are measured separately (i.e. households with mobile phones, households with internet over a personal computer or tablet).
The department, Treasury said, will measure and report on separate penetration indicators in future.
On the matter of digital TV in South Africa, Gordhan said that, while Cabinet approved R2.4 billion for the procurement of 5 million set top boxes, the project has been delayed.
National Treasury’s mid-year performance status for communications:
| Mid-year performance status | |||
| Indicator | Programme | Projected for 2013/14 | Achieved in the first six months of 2013/14 (April to September) |
| Number of ICT position papers developed for international engagements per year | International Affairs and Trade | 5 | 3 |
| Rand reduction in per minute cost of mobile phones (wholesale interconnection rate per minute) per year | Policy, Research and Capacity Development | R0.4 | R0.4 |
| Rand reduction in per minute cost for fixed line (public access) phones per year | Policy, Research and Capacity Development | R0.12 | R0.12 |
| Number of community radio stations provided with broadcasting infrastructure per year | Policy, Research and Capacity Development | 5 | 0 |
| Number of young people participating in the national youth information society and development programme per year | Policy, Research and Capacity Development | 500 | 0 |
| Number of e-cooperatives established to increase entry of youth owned small enterprises into the ICT sector per year | Policy, Research and Capacity Development | 60 | 0 |
| Number of provinces for which provincial cultural heritage content is captured in the national digital repository per year | Policy, Research and Capacity Development | 2 | 0 |
| Number of jobs created through ICT related projects per year | Policy, Research and Capacity Development | 36 644 (40%) | – |
| Number of the ICT Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises hubs created in each province per year | Broadcasting and Communication Regulation and Support | 2 | 0 |
| Number of set top boxes produced per year | Broadcasting and Communication Regulation and Support | 2 016 000 | 0 |
| Percentage of broadband penetration per year | Infrastructure Support | 10% | – |
More on the Budget
Govt stalls on R2.4 billion set-top box project
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