Communications minister Solly Malatsi on Thursday published a draft policy direction aimed at cutting the red tape that has long frustrated network operators trying to roll out broadband infrastructure across South Africa.
The draft, published in the Government Gazette, directs communications regulator Icasa to overhaul the country’s decade-old facilities leasing regulations and develop rapid deployment regulations – a move industry stakeholders have demanded for years.
The aim is to standardise fragmented municipal processes that make it difficult for operators to plan infrastructure roll-outs. “Every municipality has a different process and charges different fees and there is significant delay in issuing permits,” the explanatory note accompanying the direction reads.
The policy direction is the latest step in a process dating back to a white paper published in 2016 and a national policy on rapid deployment of electronic communications networks and facilities that followed in 2023. That national policy is also one of the action lines under Operation Vulindlela, government’s programme to accelerate structural economic reforms.
Despite the Electronic Communications Act ostensibly giving licensees broad rights to access both public and private land for network deployment, those rights have rarely translated into smooth roll-outs on the ground.
Icasa published its facilities leasing regulations in 2010 and, according to the policy direction, their impact on network deployment and affordable access has never been formally assessed. Rapid deployment regulations, which the ECA obliges Icasa to publish, have yet to materialise.
Two fronts
In the policy direction, Malatsi has asked Icasa to move on two fronts simultaneously:
- On facilities leasing, the regulator is directed to review and, if necessary, strengthen the existing regulations – clarifying who qualifies to exercise access rights, determining what constitutes an “essential facility” and on what terms access must be granted. The aim is to entrench the concept of open access and improve the timelines within which leasing requests must be processed.
- On rapid deployment, Malatsi has urged Icasa to develop a new regulatory framework built on a number of principles. Chief among these is discouraging the unnecessary duplication of infrastructure – a provision that could have significant implications for how operators approach network builds, particularly in areas already served by existing passive infrastructure.
The direction also calls for a centralised geographic information system (GIS) database to which licensees would be required to contribute details of both new and existing infrastructure, including location and type. Icasa is to liaise with the communications department to determine what information the database would hold, who could access it and how it would be secured.
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Various arms of government have attempted to tackle the problem of fragmented municipal by-laws over the years. A standard draft by-law aimed at creating a uniform approach to infrastructure deployment applications was published by the then minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in February 2023. The idea was to give municipalities a consistent template to follow. To date, however, only a fraction of South Africa’s more than 250 municipalities has adopted it.
The Competition Commission also broached the topic as part of a broader mandate to ensure municipal by-laws support the growth of small businesses through standardisation. On telecoms infrastructure, the commission said standardisation would ultimately reduce the cost of data for consumers.
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“This policy direction is about making the roll-out of digital infrastructure simpler, faster and more consistent. In response to calls from industry about one of the key factors that drive up the cost to communicate, we aim to cut unnecessary red tape and end the fragmented approval processes that delay connectivity,” said Malatsi. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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