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'War room' aims to speed up SA Connect broadband plan
The Cabinet has approved the establishment of a broadband war room' to accelerate the implementation of the SA Connect strategy to roll out broadband across the country. A war room - now dissolved - was also set up to deal with the load shedding and capacity problems experienced by Eskom.
©rphotos via 123RF
Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services deputy director-general Tinyiko Ngobeni told a meeting of Parliament's telecommunications and postal services portfolio committee on Tuesday that several government departments would be represented in the war room and that the economic cluster was finalising its terms of reference.
It would focus on unblocking challenges in rolling out the SA Connect strategy, which aims to achieve 100% broadband coverage at 10Mbps and 80% at 100Mbps in the country by 2030. With regard to ensuring broadband infrastructure for the government, Ngobeni said a two-phase strategy had been adopted to connect schools, clinics, post offices, police stations and other government facilities.
In the first phase, 6,135 facilities in eight district municipalities would be connected and in the second phase, 35,211 facilities in 44 district municipalities would be connected.
The department received R336m for the project in the current financial year, R174m less than it requested. It has been allocated R444m and R764m for the next two years, R237m and R43m lower than requested respectively. In total, in terms of the medium-term expenditure framework, R1.5bn has been allocated against the R1.9bn requested.
The lack of funding to procure broadband connectivity was a challenge, Ngobeni said. He told MPs that the tender issued by the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) to connect government facilities closed on 8 August and was under evaluation until October.
"The phase 2 business case was developed and submitted to National Treasury for funding," he added. "The department is working with Treasury to unblock the funding issue."
Source: BDpro
Source: I-Net Bridge
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