While the recently-released Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Commission Report by communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams makes all the right noises, it fails to produce proactive ideas and concrete action plans, says Victor Stephanopoli, MzansiSat chairman.
“The minister mentions the need to ’empower all South African citizens by bridging the digital divide between the digitally empowered on the one side and the digitally deprived on the other.
“This is a fair point, but how does the government intend to do this? For years, we have urged the government to take a closer look at its connectivity solutions – who they are serving, how effective they are and how they may be perpetuating the socio-economic inequalities that already exist.
“We have offered viable solutions to address the shortcomings and demonstrated how satellite offers South Africa greater interconnections, especially where the local infrastructure is challenged. But our ideas, insight and expertise have fallen on deaf ears,” he adds.
In her speech, the minister added that the challenge of bridging the digital divide meant there could be no room for complacency and required veering off into a territory of business unusual.
Stephanopoli says business unusual is what MzansiSat has experienced over the past six years, underscored by apathy in the ministry in the face of new technologies, digital innovations, pushing the envelope and going things that haven’t been done before. “South Africa is behind the curve by about four years. If all relevant stakeholders had been engaged early on in the process, we could be so much further down the line.”
He says the minister’s comment that “all efforts must be geared towards ensuring that there is an all-inclusive growth, mainly in sectors such as economic development, trade and industry, agriculture, infrastructure, labour, science and technology, higher education, basic education, health and communications” does not outline how the change will be carried out.
“At MzansiSat, we have case files on every single sector the minister outlined, from economic development, agriculture and trade and industry, to infrastructure, labour, health and education, but we have never been consulted.
“So, my question is, when the minister says ‘We are therefore in the process of designing an optimal structural and institutional framework that will respond to our new mandate’, who have they been talking to? MzansiSat has not been called and neither have many other relevant players in the industry, who are here and who are South African,” says Stephanopoli.
In talking to the key drivers of digital transformation, he says the minister mentions repurposing SITA as a new digital transformation agency to drive digitalisation, innovation, localisation and supporting a capable state, but does not explain how this will be done.
He says the point on skilling the nation – when the minister talks about responding to the 4IR – is reactive, not proactive. “If the government were serious about being proactive, they would develop and challenge IR, not respond to it.”
He suggests that the South African Broadcasting Corporate (SABC) and its stakeholders should be encouraged to further digitise their offerings to offer a more on-demand market and not just classic broadcasting. “People should also be able to go online to access content that has already been broadcast.”
Plans for the South Africa Post Office (SAPO) are also not expanded on, except to say that “the organisation is in the process of implementing its turnaround strategy which focuses on several key interventions including the launch of its e-commerce platform … and finalising MoUs with Post Bank in terms of the operational relationship going forward, following the separation of the two entities”.
Stephanopoli says it is important to transform SAPO into a reliable entity. “The old-school version of communication is more than the government serving notices, it’s about helping people across generations to reliably share and receive knowledge. This is also a great opportunity for the SAPO to claim back part of the market it lost to courier services companies.
“Positioning it not only as a regular postal and logistics giant but also possibly as a network operator, operating hot spots in rural areas could be an exciting area for SAPO to get involved in.
“Overall, the minister’s speech was underwhelming. While she covered all relevant bases, there were not many tangible examples of how the various interventions will be implemented. And, there does not seem to have been widespread stakeholder engagement, which begs the question: why have all parties not been invited to the conversation?” he concludes.