Date: 20/04/2010
Source: Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Zondi: Speech by IFP Member of Parliament on the Communications budget vote, National Assembly
Honourable Chairperson

I rise to express the IFP's support for this Budget Vote for the simple
reason that the people that we represent need the services which have been
placed under the custodianship of this Department.

The Honourable, the Minister made very good pronouncements during last
year's Budget debate and we supported him in the hope that he would exercise
strong political and ethical leadership to steer his Department towards the
implementation of those pronouncements. Admittedly, one year in office is a
short time to pass harsh judgement on the Minister's ability to achieve that
which he announced his Department was going to do.

I come from a political tradition that says it is better not to make
promises which cannot be fulfilled because all you do is raise people's
expectations and heighten their sense of frustration when such promises
cannot be achieved. In fact, the danger is, that when that happens, you
actually insult the intelligence of the people to whom such promises were
made.

I hope that this is not going to be the leadership style of the Honourable
the Minister to employ the tactic of deception to carry along those people
who wait in hopeful expectation for that which cannot be delivered. In fact,
I trust that the Honourable the Minister is going to make good the
promissory note he gave to the people of South Africa, especially those who
live in underserviced areas of the country.

We support this Budget Vote in the hope that people who live in rural areas
are soon going to see tangible results of the promises and the good
intentions which were promised them last year. But hope alone is not going
to suffice in the long run. It is solid delivery on the ground which, in the
final analysis, will cause people to say "Ahha, indeed we can see things
turning for the better".

We praise the Honourable the Minister for bold initiatives which he took in
forcing cellphone operators to reduce inter-connection rates. We can only
hope that such a reduction is going to be passed on to ordinary South
Africans. Similarly we praise the Honourable the Minister for the leadership
role he played towards the resolution of the painful saga which engulfed the
SABC by ensuring that his Department provide the financial guarantees and
other necessary support to enable the Interim Board and later the new and
current Board of the SABC in their daunting task of turning around and
stabilising the SABC to save this country from possible embarrassment which
would surely befall us if the SABC disintegrated ahead of the FIFA World Cup
Soccer Tournament which will commence in 52 days time.

We hope that all the budgetary allocations to entities such as Sentech and
Telkom are going to be money well spent for the extension of the national
wireless broadband network and for the implementation of the ICT access
network as well as to fund the ICT infrastructure for the 2010 FIFA World
Cup. Similarly, one hopes that the budgetary allocations, which we are being
called upon to approve are going to be worth our while to make available to
the Universal Service and Access Fund to build capacity and to procure the
necessary supporting infrastructure to expand ICT access to South Africans
who live in underserviced areas as well as to complete the migration from an
analogue to digital technology platform.

Honourable Chairperson, we are mindful of the fact that this Department was
in the 2010 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) requested to include
explicit savings initiatives in the Strategic Plan. This request to save was
made with the proviso that existing, new and expanding frontline services
would not be compromised over the next three years.

This was done in the context of the painful fact that our country's economy
was, like most other economies of the world, going through a difficult patch
which called for austerity measures from all of us. It is very disappointing
to say the least, that this Department has not gained a reputation of
leading by example, especially on the part of the Honourable the Minister.
When all of us are called upon to tighten our belts and especially when even
the poor are called upon to also make their patriotic efforts to moderate
their demands and expectations, it painfully flies in the face of what we
exhort people to do when we and especially when the Honourable the Minister
appears to have a reputation which points to the contrary. It is in fact,
very disappointing for those of us who want the Honourable the Minister to
succeed, when he hits newspaper headlines for wrong and embarrassing
reasons. We begin to wonder whether the savings projections reflected in the
Department's Strategic Plan are going to be achieved. We make an earnest
plea for the Minister to rise to the occasion of leading by example.

I thank you.