{"id":362822,"date":"2019-12-19T14:10:21","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T12:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=362822"},"modified":"2019-12-19T14:10:21","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T12:10:21","slug":"massive-department-of-communications-overhaul-heres-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/362822\/massive-department-of-communications-overhaul-heres-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Department of Communications overhaul &#8211; here&#8217;s what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has announced that ZADNA, ICASA, and the FPB will be merged.<\/p>\n<p>Ndabeni-Abrahams was speaking at a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pscp.tv\/w\/1vAxRqBmbazJl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>press conference<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0about the department\u2019s digital transformation plan for South Africa when she made the announcement.<\/p>\n<p>The communications department is developing a model for \u201csmart regulation\u201d in the country, which will see the three regulatory bodies amalgamated.<\/p>\n<p>Ndabeni-Abrahams added that they will also explore new funding mechanisms for the \u201cnew regulator\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The merging of the three organisations will ostensibly see the following functions falling under one roof:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa)<\/strong>: The regulation of the South African communications, broadcasting, and postal services sectors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>FPB (Film and Publication Board)<\/strong>: The regulation of films, games, and certain publications through classification.<\/li>\n<li><strong>ZADNA (.za Domain Name Authority)<\/strong>: The management and regulation of the .za namespace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Sentech and Broadband Infraco merger<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was not the only merger discussed by Ndabeni-Abrahams, however.<\/p>\n<p>Ndabeni-Abrahams announced that state-owned companies Sentech and Broadband Infraco will be merged to form the \u201cstate digital infrastructure company\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Sentech handles certain signal distribution and digital content delivery services in South Africa, while Broadband Infraco is responsible for rolling out the government\u2019s broadband networks.<\/p>\n<p>The minister added that her department is also \u201cengaging\u201d with\u00a0Sanral, Prasa, Eskom, and Transnet to ensure they do not enter the commercial broadband market.<\/p>\n<p>These entities currently self-provide connectivity services, said the minister.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>SITA<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SITA is another organisation which will undergo changes, stated the minister.<\/p>\n<p>SITA \u2013 the State Information Technology Agency \u2013 will become a \u201cdigital transformation agency\u201d, and will no longer act as only a procurement agency.<\/p>\n<p>An administrator will be appointed for a period of 24 months to oversee this transformation.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>More plans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ndabeni-Abrahams went on to talk at length about the \u201cFourth Industrial Revolution\u201d in South Africa and the government\u2019s plan to ensure the country benefits from this.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said this will see the government continuing to focus on the licensing of high-demand spectrum for mobile operators \u2013 adding that ICASA has issued an information memorandum on the allocations.<\/p>\n<p>Reducing the cost to communicate is also on their agenda, with a focus on reducing the price of mobile data for citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Accompanying this is a renewed focus on the national\u00a0digital TV migration project, which is several years behind schedule.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/362808\/how-south-africas-new-data-price-recommendations-could-make-the-mobile-market-worse\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">How forcing networks to cut data prices could make the mobile market worse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has announced that ZADNA, ICASA, and the FPB will be merged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":234265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-362822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362822"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362830,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362822\/revisions\/362830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}