Residents of Region F came in their numbers to attend the City of Johannesburg’s Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC) public meeting held last night, 14 August 2019, at Eureka House in Springfield.
The aim of the public meeting was to give insight into a process being undertaken to unlock the commercial value of the MTC broadband network.
This approach will see the sale of the City’s broadband network, which is worth about R1.2 billion.
The sale of the asset will allow MTC to advance its business and continue to perform its mandate, which seeks to provide reliable services to the City and its critical programmes. Benefits of the sale and conclusion of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) will assist MTC to become a digital and Smart City enabler for the City, its entities, and citizens by focusing only on commercialisation and leveraging the service provider’s network to provide services to the customers.
Itumeleng Mofikoe, MTC’s Chief Technology Officer, said “the sale of the network will transfer ownership of all the physical components of the network asset, which includes the passive network and the active network”.
“This asset is fully owned and maintained by MTC. Going forward the plan is to have service providers take over the network,” he said.
An exciting element that people can look forward to are key benefits, which will include the reduction of the cost of data by up to 50%. The entity is currently working on a SMME reseller portal that will be launched soon.
Residents raised their concerns on the transparency of the tender process, whether the City will have any influence once the asset has been sold, among others. One of the young people who attended the meeting, Gerald Mthembu, said: “I hope the SLA covers issues of community development, skills development and internships as the majority of people in the region are unemployed."
“The service provider will be responsible for developing the skills of small enterprises on the MTC’s SMME programme," Mofikoe concluded.
This is part of the City’s Mayoral Priorities to promote economic development and attract investment towards achieving 5% economic growth that reduces unemployment by 2021.
