The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) on Friday launched a four-chamber national information and communications technology (ICT) forum aimed at driving South Africa’s shift to an inclusive society.

The government-led forum would act as a platform for collaboration between all three spheres of government, the private sector and civil society to fast-track the implementation of the country’s ICT policies.

This emerged less than a month after Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Dr Siyabonga Cwele received the final recommendation report from a dedicated ICT policy review panel on the way forward for the revamped Integrated ICT Policy.

“For [South Africa] to enter the ICT revolution, there is a need to mobilise all [stakeholders – government, private sector, labour and civil society],” he said, adding that the forum would allow for a coordination of efforts, collaborative dialogue and strategy development in the implementation of the government’s ICT policies.

“This is not a talk shop. We have work to do. We have targets to achieve,” he assured stakeholders.

Democratic Alliance Telecommunications and Postal Services Shadow Minister Marian Shinn earlier this week questioned the necessity of the forum, accusing the State of reinventing the wheel of government–industry engagements.

“I have written to the Minister to enquire why it is necessary to create another consultative body for ICT sector stakeholders, trade unions and government to advise his department on how to implement the vision of SA Connect, what the launch event cost and how the National ICT Forum will be financed,” she said.

Cwele said up to R1-million had been set aside to fund the forum.

Guided by the principles of the ICT policy review panel recommendations, the National Development Plan and SA Connect, the forum had been divided into four “chambers”, namely social, economic, governance and security and ICTs and disability, which would meet up to three times a year to map out work programmes and set targets.

Forum chairs Cwele and Deputy Minister Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize would monitor progress, ensure coherent alignment and strategic coordination across all the chambers and unblock any bottlenecks.

The first chairperson meeting would be held within a week, while the chambers’ first meetings would be held before June 3.

The social chamber, which was responsible for policies governing e-health, e-education, e-justice and e-agriculture, would be chaired by Chose Choeu, with Arthur Kekana appointed as policy head.

The economic chapter was tasked with policies relating to ICT skills development and the development of ICT small, medium-sized and microenterprises and would be headed up by chairperson Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha and policy head Themba Phiri.

Tony Parry and Tinyiko Ngobeni were appointed chairperson and policy head respectively of the governance and security cluster responsible for cybersecurity, e-commerce, cloud computing and Internet governance, while the ICT and disabilities unit, with Praveena Sukhraj Ely as chairperson and Petronella Linders as policy head, would oversee the mainstreaming of disabilities within policy formulation and ensuring accessibility of ICTs to persons with disabilities.

The forum still needed to finalise and apply the terms of reference, while the deliverables, timelines and assignment of responsibilities within the work programmes needed to be completed.