Innovative broadband project for Tshwane
A broadband project, described by Tshwane city manager Jason Ngobeni as a game changer, will soon be introduced by the metro.
Stephané Bothma
A ground-breaking and innovative broadband project is to be introduced by the Tshwane metro in the near future.
This will seek to bring down the cost of government, promote and support e-government, generate new revenue streams and improve service delivery, the metro said in a statement.
Because of delays in talks with concerned parties, such as the Treasury, the item had to be withdrawn for approval from Thursday’s council meeting agenda.
The metro said the report would likely be up for discussion and approval at the March council meeting.
“The Tshwane metro sincerely apologises for the delay in finalising this game-changing project and reaffirms its commitment to excellence in service delivery,” city manager Jason Ngobeni said.
Ngobeni had hailed the broadband project as a game-changer which would revolutionise the ICT infrastructure in the metro.
“The sooner this broadband project is successfully implemented, the faster the envisaged benefits can be enjoyed by all citizens of the city,” Ngobeni said.
He said the incorporation of the erstwhile municipalities of Metsweding and Dinokeng Tsa Taemane into Tshwane in 2011 contributed greatly to the current ICT infrastructure gap in the metro.
“The metro is not capitalising on (sic) this project, as a third party service provider will have to raise its own funding,” Ngobeni said.
“The metro will merely procure services from this provider, in addition to helping define the rules of this ICT infrastructure and bias towards underprivileged communities.”
He said the planning, tender processes and agreement negotiations had taken a long time to finalise.
“A public participation process was undertaken in compliance with Section 33 of the MFMA during November and December last year, and January, wherein the public was encouraged to comment on the draft agreement with the service provider.”
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
