Address by Ms Stella Ndabeni Abrahams, Deputy Minister of Communications

At the Official Launch of the Ikamva National E-skills institude at the Durban University of Technology,

Ritson Campus, on 21 February 2014

Engaging youth as active participants in building an inclusive economy

Programme Director
Honourable Member of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Ms Minah Lesoma
Honourable Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission, Mr Trevor Manuel
Honourable Minister of Communications, Mr Yunus Carrim
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Durban University of Technology, Professor Ahmed Bawa
Nemisa Chairperson, Dr Molatelo Maloka
Chairpersons & CEOs of State Owned Entities
Senior Government Officials

Ladies & Gentlemen

Sanibonani!
It is my pleasure and privilege to be in your midst this morning to launch the Ikamva National e-skills Institute thus operationalises the National Development Plan, education as a key government priority and SA Connect,
Ladies and gentlemen allow me to take you down memory lane, In 1994, mobile phones were introduced in the country,  rolling out of ICT infrastructure kicked off and  to-date, more than 6 000 public schools in rural and underserviced areas have received cyberlabs. Today we have a SA Connect which is  the country’s broadband policy and plan which aims to facilitate the creation of a dynamic and connected vibrant information society and a knowledge economy that is more inclusive, equitable and prosperous. Lastly, we are moving from analogue to digital television.  We now invite you to share our good story with the world.

Eversince he took reigns, President Zuma made  sure that education is an apex priority for government.  This he declared because he realises the importance of education in our society especially towards economic growth. Therefore, in bringing together the former National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA), the e-Skills Institute established  and the Institute for Satellite and Software Applications (ISSA) into an integrated state owned entity today marks a significant step in our journey to help South Africa build our e-skills capabilities and to improve the way we harness modern ICT to fight poverty and to improve our international competitiveness.
What is also clear is that this is no easy task and that traditional approaches within education, government, business, civil society and global development partners have not worked effectively and something more needs to be done.

This new technology is rapidly evolving and becoming more capable, accessible, mobile, affordable and  visually enhanced. It is bringing new value propositions for us all. It is hard to imagine that the very first computer tablet was released onto the market just 3 and1/2 years ago by Apple and that within that time the equivalent of 1 in every 22 people in the world now owns an iPad. And that does not account for the millions of Samsung and other brand name computer tablets that have also emerged in the last 3 years. In the same amount of time the number of people now using social media is now much bigger than the population of the largest country on earth. So the game is changing rapidly and we need to change or be left behind. We thefore call upon yourselves to grab these opportunities and make sure that you are involved in the value chain of ICTs.

A demonstration of the urgency we now face is reflected in South Africa’s position in the global e-readiness rankings which has dropped from 47th in 2007 to 70th in 2013.  Despite being well ahead of comparable middle income economies in our political and regulatory environment, we lag well behind in skills, individual usage, government usage, social impacts and affordability.  This has happened not because we aren’t doing many good things, it is because other countries have recognised the essential importance of taking new approaches, of prioritising efforts in multi-stakeholder methods and simply moved faster.

Ladies and gentlemen we can address our inequity, compete globally, attract inward investment or impact the aims of our National Development Plan  through  substantially improving our e-readiness, the e-astuteness of our people to build and strengthen business, to improve our service delivery, to increase the uptake of our services in a sustainable manner, to improve our education and training, to improve the participation of our people in building a capable developmental state.

The Department also recently gazetted our broadband policy – SA Connect which provides a sound blueprint for how we must go about getting the infrastructure setup to give our country the support it needs to join the information society and enhance our socio-economic position. But we need not only  focus on the supply side of the equation whilst leaving the adoption to chance as it will never work, ours is to proactively develop the demand for more effective uptake of modern ICT devices and applications right across the full spectrum of our society as users, consumers, business developers, service deliverers, service users, life-long learners, educators and trainers, individuals, families and communities if we are to build a more inclusive knowledge based economy.

The work that the Department through the e-Skills Institute has done since 2008 has now established a very sound base for us to advance. This has been spelt out in the National e-Skills Plans of Action developed in 2010 and updated in 2013. This approach has been endorsed by the ITU.

A key to this approach is a recognition of the need for a new collaborative institutional architecture aligned to government , so that it can more effectively interact with business, education and civil society to aggregate efforts, be more responsive in the dynamic ICT enabled environment that is sweeping the world, be a catalyst for new approaches, help existing efforts to be more effective and better align energy to our National Development Plan. We need to recognise as many countries around the world have already done that we can’t do this alone, that we need to establish widely based, credible and proactive networks that are on the same journey.

Fortunately the e-Skills Institute has already commenced this process and has an impressive national and international network across business, government, education, civil society and international bodies that now wanting to  engage with us.  This is why today is such an important event because it recognises this need and it marks the departure point for ‘business as usual’ approach which has to date not been able to improve our national e-readiness.Having now gotten to this point, it is important for us to look forward and to set some targets that can better position us in the immediate future.

First and foremost, is the need to better align collective e-skills efforts across government, business, education and civil society to support the National Develop Plan in visible and measurable ways, particularly in building an active citizenry that can develop leadership throughout  society to unite people around a common programme to fight poverty and inequity. The new Institute needs to build the bridges across our society and through the NDP that can channel measureable effort into a dynamic impact. It is obvious that we need to immediately move to establish a national ‘e-readiness programme and fund’ that can commence this process forthwith.

Secondly, and aligned to this, the Institute must commence a process to develop evidence based policy development, delivery and evaluation to better position South Africa in the emerging world which is increasingly dominated by modern ICT. For this to be effective, it needs to facilitate the establishment of relevant Professorial chairs aligned to our higher educational institutions across the country, unite them in a cohesive manner and develop relevant communication and publication processes.

Further, it needs to ensure that it can develop sound approaches to add to the collection of our national statistics. It also needs to develop a supported framework that can engage with all stakeholder groups to make better use of international programmes and interest in helping us develop well targeted research, evaluation and policies to impact our e-readiness position. Modern ICT knows no boundaries whether they are cultural, economic, social or geographic. Hence we need new policies that recognise that the artificial boundaries we have established in our governments, our businesses, our education and our civil society are not always helpful in addressing the real needs of our people.

Thirdly, we need to recognise that youth hold the key to our immediate collective future. Youth are the most committed users of these new technologies; they have the highest levels of unemployment and the highest needs to belong to identifiable social groups. Despite economic circumstances South Africans have a very high adoption and use of cell phones with more than 94% of households having access to a cell phone. Youth are particularly high users of cell phones which are rapidly developing ‘smart phone’ capabilities as the basic option. In short, the current developments in modern ICT suit their needs.

But we don’t have useful approaches to encompass them into our processes, or to build on their inherent capabilities and interests into innovative efforts to solve problems and build the steps they need to create the future articulated in the National Development Plan where we have an inclusive developmental economy and where we can develop leadership at the local level to sustain the cohesion we need for a people centered development. We call this e-astuteness and e-social astuteness.

Honourable Guests, whilst there are opportunities within the ICT sector, reports have shown that South Africa has a glaring disparity between its higher education system and the workplace, an issue that can only further harm an economy struggling to absorb its youth and growth in line with its BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – trading block partners. Furthermore, the South African Graduates Development Association (SAGDA) cites that there is a skills mismatch which is mainly driven by a lack of career planning, guidance and management at high school level; poor mathematics and science education in high schools; a lack of employment attraction skills such as interview and job searching skills; and minimal work experience exposure.

As a part of this effort the Institute needs to establish a comprehensive rotational visitation and sabbaticals programme across South Africa and with other countries to ensure our people get to fully appreciate how best practise works and for others to better understand the key matters of effectively appropriating the new technologies into our cultures and communities for local benefit. The Institute needs to develop a well-integrated multi-layered youth movement that can capacitate our youth to become motivators and leaders in making South Africa a more e-astute society that can deliver a capable developmental state.

On this note, I would like to recognise the presence of a phenomenal young lady, Sinenhle Mtlomelo who is behind the name that we are about to unveil. Sinenhle is a former  NEMISA student and majored in TV production. I would therefore like to congratulate Sinenhle for this innovation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as former President Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done." There are countless opportunities available for the youth to meaningfully participate in the ICT sector – the Ikamva National e-Skills Institute will expose young people to these opportunities and ensure that they have the necessary skills to be able to meaningfully exploit them for their economic emancipation. As the Department of Communications, we are committed towards positioning South Africa as a global leader in the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for socio-economic development. We are committed to building youth who will have the requisite skills to participate in the global knowledge and information economy that will deliver us to economic freedom.

I thank you.