Critics have called for a restructuring of the Universal Service Agency (USA) following the resignation of CEO Sam Gulube this week, citing the Department of Communications parastatal’s inability to deliver affordable communication to under-serviced areas.
They argue that with an ever-increasing budget and bureaucracy the “ad-hoc projects and impact” delivered by the USA so far is unacceptable and a rethink of South Africa’s approach to universal service is required.
The USA receives R100-million from telecoms operators each year to increase telecoms access for poorer communities and more than R15-million from the Department of Communications for operational costs.
A joint statement issued by the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) expressed concern about South Africa’s excessive telecommunications costs and the conflict of interest within the USA regarding Microsoft.
“The Universal Service Agency, an organisation with a large budget from governments and larger amounts from telecoms operators, has so far largely failed to deliver on its core mandate of providing cheap and affordable communication,” said the statement.
The statement called for the USA to be subject to intense scrutiny following Gulube’s resignation and for the parastatal to be held accountable to the communities it is meant to service.
The USA has been wracked by conflict of interest claims since it was revealed that the organisation’s chairperson, Chose Choeu, is also the head of regulatory affairs at Microsoft South Africa.
This came to light following the announcement last year that the USA and Microsoft had signed an agreement in terms of which Microsoft would provide free software for 284 USA community telecentres.
This deal was signed against the backdrop of the debate on “open source” versus “proprietary software”, and critics argued that although the software was free, it would create a dependency on Microsoft.
“Open source” is a term used for computer software that has been built by developers who make the source code freely available. This is unlike the more widely known proprietary software model, where a software product is owned by a single company and users pay to use it.
A senior USA staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that open source initiatives were not receiving the support required within the USA and that Microsoft was being favoured because of the influence of Choeu.
At the time of the announcement, Nhlanhla Mabaso, centre manager at the Meraka Institute for information and communications technology and an advocate of open source, told the Mail & Guardian that officials from the Department of Communications were upset about views that Choeu had expressed on open source.
“This is a clear conflict of interests and needs to be dealt with immediately,” said Sangoco and the FXI, who called on the USA to inform the public of its partnership with Microsoft and to deal with the conflict of interests.
“We note and object to the high level of lobbying by proprietary companies such as Microsoft,” said the statement. The statement called for an urgent public meeting to debate the future of the USA and its progress as well as the parastatal’s impact on poor communities.
Gulube confirmed that he had effectively resigned from May 15 and that he would be returning to the field of medicine. “That is my first passion, clinical health services,” said Gulube.
“I always wanted to integrate information and communication technology in the health sector and I feel I am in a better position to do that now.”
USA’s senior manager for regulatory and communications, Tebogo Thupaatlase, confirmed Gulube’s resignation, but refused to comment on the decision, claiming Gulube had personal reasons. He said he did not know when a decision would be taken about a replacement.
“There is a board meeting this weekend,” said Thupaatlase. “I don’t know if the matter is on the agenda.”