Johannesburg - Communications Minister Dina Pule is to hold more regular update meetings with heads of state-owned companies (SOCs), she said on Thursday.
The meetings would now take place once a month, instead of every three months, she said in a statement.
“I decided to streamline how I relate to the SOCs to ensure that, as a department, we improve the quality of service we deliver to our citizens,” she said.
“On the evidence from my revised engagements with the SOCs, I'm confident we shall meet all the goals we have set ourselves.”
SOC chairs, chief executives and chief operating officers would attend the meetings, which were aimed at finding speedy resolutions to SOC problems.
Specific issues would be addressed by specialists.
Pule said she had met the Independent Communications Regulator of SA (Icasa), the SABC, Sentech, the SA Post Office, Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA) and the eSkills Institute in the past week.
It had been decided that Icasa would announce a public consultation plan to reduce the cost of communicating.
Pule would announce details soon about more transparent ICT pricing and more competitive broadband pricing for premium content;
She said she was pleased with the progress made by Sentech, SABC, SA Post Office, and USAASA in meeting the June 17, 2015, deadline for the digital terrestrial television roll-out.
Pule had instructed them to increase public awareness programme, and she would soon release for comment a revised draft policy on set-top-box control.
Earlier this week, the Press Ombudsman said he would investigate Pule's complaint that the Sunday Times was conducting a smear campaign against her relating to business interests in the tender for set-top boxes.
The boxes are required for the move from analogue to digital television broadcasting.
Pule told Parliament this week that her department was not dysfunctional. - Sapa