From today until Friday, the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services, will be conducting provincial oversight visits to inspect the current status of ICT service delivery by the entities reporting to it.

The visits will cover Gauteng and Mpumalanga and will give members of the committee a better understanding of the functioning of said entities and enhance the work done by Parliament to hold the executive accountable.

“The ICT services ensure that government fulfils Section 16 of the Constitution which, amongst others, stipulates that everyone has the eight to impart and receive information and this has been interpreted to mean the means by which access is made possible,” said Committee Chairperson, Mmamoloko Kubayi.

The committee will visit the USAASA broadband project in Mpumalanga to inspect a recent project implemented, as well as two of the South African Post Office retail agencies, to check on capacity as a number of issues were highlighted with regard to the retail agencies during a previous visit to Limpopo.

In Gauteng, it will visit SAPO mail centre in Johannesburg to deal with a number of issues including distribution, international dispatch as well as visit to one small post office in the city. The committee will also visit provincial Department of Education to check progress on the Paperless Classrooms programme, and Tshwane Municipality to interact on the city WiFi project.