Telecommunications and Postal Services Deputy Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize vowed that partially State-owned Telkom would not entrench itself further as a telecommunications monopoly as government accelerates its broadband deployment.

Her comments followed significant public outcry after President Jacob Zuma announced that Telkom would be the “lead agency” in South Africa’s multibillion-rand broadband project.

The roll-out of a nationwide broadband network was one of nine focus areas set out by Zuma in his State of the Nation Address last month that have been prioritised to kickstart the nation’s struggling economy, with this year marking the first phase.

An earlier report by Business Day indicated that Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille planned to take the matter to the Constitutional Court, as she believed the “contract” had been awarded to Telkom illegally without an open tender.

However, Mkhize stated that Zille’s comments were irresponsible and that the JSE-listed Telkom would not undertake the task on its own – and would not be funding the full project, as had been suggested.

“[Information and communications technology (ICT)] is not for the elite; it is for all South Africans,” she told Engineering News Online, pointing out that Telkom had the capability to leverage the relevant State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and to pull other companies into the fold and transfer knowledge and skills.

As the broadband roll-out progressed, government aimed to include other ICT firms to leverage Telkom’s “technical know-how”, as it had deployed South Africa’s “broadest and widest” telecommunications network to date.

The telecommunications giant had about 147 000 km of terrestrial fibre across South Africa and more than 16 000 fibre distribution points, enabling more than 100 000 services. It further had a 55% population reach with its third-generation coverage; 2 428 base station sites on air; around 1 300 long-term evolution sites and over 3 700 Wi-Fi access points.

Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko last year said the firm aimed to lead the way on South Africa’s roll-out of broadband, fulfilling a broader role in transforming the South African economy through broadband.

“As part of our turnaround, we have given this matter much thought. It is our belief that Telkom is ideally positioned to be the anchor in a public–private partnership to realise the [South Africa Connect] national broadband plan,” he said at the time.

Mkhize promised, however, that no company would be “left behind”, reassuring stakeholders that government would honour the National Development Plan in terms of competitive development.

Further, government sought to integrate its SOEs to form a more collaborative partnership to close the current disconnect between the parastatals and extend their services to the national project more efficiently.

“We have the ability to bring all agencies together,” she said. This included Telkom, in which government had a majority stake.

The National Infrastructure Plan's Strategic Integrated Project 15 aimed to expand access to ICTs; however, the relevant SOEs tasked with this were fragmented, resulting in limited impact, and their strategies needed to be aligned.

“More and more, government is under pressure to be at the forefront of the Internet of things. That is where the battleground is,” Mkhize stated.