Dr Agostinho Zacarias, UN Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP Representative in South Africa

Dr Brahima Sanou, Director at the International Telecommunications Union

Mr Sikhumbuzo Kholwane, Chair of the Portfolio Committee on Communications

Deputy Minister of Communications, Mr Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams

Members of the PCC

Chairperson of the Institute, Dr Molatelo Maloka

Leadership of the Department of Communications and the SOEs

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is just 3 years since Apple launched its first iPad; it is currently in its 5^th generation and 1 in every 20 people across the world has bought one.  It is predicted that 1.2 billion smartphones and tablets will be sold across the world in 2013.

I make this point to underline the simple reality that the capacity, availability, mobility, affordability and video capacity of modern ICT devices is escalating at unprecedented rate that shows no evidence of slowing down; in fact, it is only increasing. 

What this inevitably means is that the base level of cellphones and mobile devices will become more powerful, more complex and more able to positively impact on South Africa’s developmental agenda across the full socio-economic spectrum.

What we also know is that the issues of inequity we face in South Africa can only be solved by effective appropriation of mobile technology in ways that empower all South Africans to engage more effectively as consumers, clients, business developers, service delivery agents, families, communities and organisations.

Whist we have been busy over recent years grappling with these trends and addressing the significant infrastructure issues, unfortunately other countries especially those with smaller populations and those with better infrastructure have been busier.

Hence our global e-readiness ranking according to the World Economic Forum’s latest report has dropped from 47th in 2007 to 70th in 2013.

In comparison with our peers we are well ahead in the ‘political and regulatory environment’, ‘business and innovation environment’, ‘infrastructure and digital content’ and in ‘business usage’. We are about equal with our peers in ‘economic impacts’.

However we lag behind in ‘affordability’, ‘skills’, ‘government usage’, ‘individual usage’ and in ‘social impacts’. 

When these matters are put together they go to the very heart of the concept of e-astuteness which is so vital to us for developing a future that can unite South Africans around a common purpose to fight poverty and inequity.  That can build skills to develop a capable state with an inclusive economy.

The importance of these issues on our developmental agenda, the way that investors see our country and in reducing inequity is significant and we need to prioritise these matters for serious attention.

Distinguished guests,

The Price Waterhouse Cooper’s report into ‘How to support Tech Startups and Accelerate Australian Innovation’ released just last month found that Culture is the key to accelerating the growth of a tech community.

Further, this report found that strong horizontal social networks between connected entrepreneurs create information spillover effects from one part of the community to the next such that one person’s knowledge becomes the community’s knowledge.

So in going forward, South Africa needs to develop an environment for open collaborative, and integrated approaches.

Significantly, the work of the e-Skills Institute has been focused on developing a sound base for such work which can reverse our e-readiness rankings. Such work is by its very nature complex, involving a number of actors working together.

It requires the establishment of a collaborative delivery vehicle which interfaces between our service delivery Departments and State Owned Companies, business, education, civil society and organised labour.

As you will recall the first South African National e-Skills Plan of Action (NeSPA) was developed from 2 years of wide consultation and delivered in 2010.

This plan provided the base to commence our journey and as a result we have established 5 Knowledge Production and Coordination CoLabs in association with 5 Universities selected to represent the socio-economic diversity of both our Higher education system and our country.

The major aims of these CoLabs are to coordinate the efforts of government, business, education and civil society across provinces, develop relevant e-Skills curricula, establish a base for monitoring and evaluation and to act as a focal point for local, national and international praxis.

In October last year and as mentioned by the Deputy Minister, the second e-Skills Summit was conducted in association with the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Global ICT Forum on Human Capacity Development. The discussions at this forum subsequently formed the basis of the second NeSPA.

NeSPA 2013 has laid out 7 recommendations

1. Continuing with NeSPA 2010 recommended actions.

2. Providing the mechanism to aggregate and integrate efforts across Government, Business, Education, Civil Society, Organised Labour and with the international community that develops capabilities for an active e-astute citizenry which can grow an inclusive economy within a capable developmental state.

3. Developing policy-making, research, monitoring and evaluation capacity through:
   1. Strengthening the Research Network for e-Skills (RESNeS) with the allocation of funds and resources from existing government provisions.
   2. Request a policy intervention to allocate 12 South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) professorial chairs to e-skills, e-astuteness, e-social astuteness and e-readiness initiatives with the relevant adjustments to the selection criteria to account for emerging national needs aligned to the National Development Plan.

4. The establishment of a collaborative multi-stakeholder funding vehicle to commence coordinating the approach to addressing South Africa’s e-readiness slippage.

5. Reinforcing the mandated legitimacy and increasing awareness of the e-Skills Knowledge Production and Coordination CoLabs across all levels of Government (especially local and provincial), state owned companies (SOCs), Business, Organised Labour, Civil Society and Education by initiating project engagement supported in accordance with correspondence from relevant coordinating mechanisms of the South African Government.

6. The establishment and delivery of a national curriculum and competency framework (NCCF) for e-Skills across the full education, training and social learning landscape.

7. Building capacity for e-astuteness and e-social astuteness through the establishment of a 5 year program of e-capacity building sabbaticals for senior representatives in Business, Government, Education and international exchanges for postgraduate, undergraduate and high school learners in a coordinated approach across its international partnerships.

This approach has the endorsement of the ITU Global ICT Forum on Human Capacity Development which has been recommended to the 55 countries that attended this important and very credible forum.

So, we now have a plan that very specifically addresses the issues raised by the World Economic Forum’s e-readiness rankings and that has substantive international endorsement as being best practice.

The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) 2013 held in Geneva just last week exactly 10 years after the first WSIS has also provided us with some very useful matters for us to consider in how we deliver this plan.

Amongst the discussions, there was recognition that key issues in appropriating ICT for local benefit were that:

1. government must lead;

2. industry is key for innovation but requires clear goals from government;

3. Corporate Social Investment (CSI) is a thing of the past in socially appropriating ICT for local benefit;

4. no need for more isolated projects focusing on penetration only;

5. impact assessments are needed, not measuring inputs and outputs; and

6. appropriate budget and collaborative investment for scalability and sustainability at the outset are vital.

I am very pleased to advise that all of these issues are recognised and addressed in the NeSPA 2013.

In taking these matters forward, it is very obvious that we must aggregate existing Government effort under a new theme that can provide a framework for all stakeholders to address our e-readiness and our e-astuteness.

Hence today, I am pleased to launch the ?????????????????? which combines the previous e-Skills Institute, NEMISA and ISSA as a separate government owned company to provide government leadership as a catalytic collaborator and developer to lead our efforts in building our e-readiness and e-astuteness across the nation.

The NeSPA 2013 reflects the clear message from our stakeholder groups (now more than 50) for a special purpose vehicle separated from the restrictions of a stove-piped Government structure to allow Government, Business, Education, Civil Society and Organised Labour to collectively develop an integrated response to our huge challenge in making our country e-ready and e-astute.

Our Business stakeholders have for a long time now sought a ‘single point of entry’ mechanism to interact with and to bring their skills and resources to the table to grow the environment for an e-skilled nation. In response to this I also announce today that will now establish an ‘e-Readiness Flagship Programme and Fund’.

This fund will provide the means for business, government, education, civil society and organised labour to contribute funds, resources and skills into a programme fund that they will have a direct say in setting the agenda and running. 

The will commence a consultative process with stakeholders on how this Flagship Programme and Fund should be best managed. It is our current intention to set up a number of advisory structures to ensure that we bring the absolute best capacity we can enlist to the important task ahead of us.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Department of Communications is geared towards ensuring that our citizens are ready to seize the opportunities that this ICT Revolution has engendered. E-Skilling our nation is part of that strategy.

To all of our partners here today I wish to extend my gratitude for what we have achieved here today for the benefit of our country.