Consultation on the Draft South African National Infrastructure Plan: Comments on ICT Networks

Abstract

The government of South Africa has adopted a National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) with ambitious targets, including for telecommunications. This is only partly aligned with its adoption of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), the subject of a recent lengthy report. The telecommunications part of NIP set targets in terms of old technologies, while its implementation is already badly delayed. In particular it is a decade late in digital migration and much longer in releasing spectrum to mobile operators for 4G and 5G services. The problems lie with ministers, rather than the regulator. Consequently, the call to benchmark the regulator is misguided, what is needed is a review of the system, including ineffectual or outdated legislation. There is a lack of granular data on which to base public policy and regulatory action. Equally, given problems of corruption and state capture, there is a lack of transparency data of donations, gifts and meeting between business, ministers and officials.