The Department of Communications (DoC) on Friday took the public discussions over the proposed changes to South Africa’s information and communications technology (ICT) policy to stakeholders in the North West in the first of a series of provincial public hearings set for the next two weeks.
The department, which published the Green Paper for the National Integrated ICT Policy earlier this year, was currently undertaking nationwide public consultations on the document, which kicked off with a national consultative conference in Boksburg on Monday.
The provincial hearing, held in Rustenburg, discussed ICT skills shortages at municipal level, the strategic positioning of ICT within government and collaboration between government and institutions of higher learning to encourage innovation in the province.
“The public hearing is an opportunity to [address] the shortcomings of existing legislation. We need to identify ways in which we can use ICT to improve the economy of the province in areas such as tourism, agriculture and mining. The province still has significant ICT services gaps in the rural areas and this hampers the ability of people in villages to access ICT,” said North West Finance MEC Paul Sebegoe.
The national roadshow would see the department head to Mpumalanga on March 14, before moving on to the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and the Northern Cape, concluding the hearings in the Free State on March 27.