Broadband Infraco, which painted a dismal picture of its financial well-being in parliament on Tuesday, has revealed it is on a mission to win back one of its most lucrative contracts – with the State IT Agency (Sita).
Parliament’s communications & digital technologies portfolio committee was told by executives of the state-owned company, which provides backhaul fibre communications, that MTN, which it lost the contract to, was not performing to par. They hope to win back some of the business.
Infraco had been providing core network infrastructure and connectivity services for Sita to deliver IT and communications services for government. But the contract, along with another one with Eskom, was cancelled.
CEO Gift Zowa told MPs that Sita had wanted “more competitive offers” and “better performance”. He said the communications department and Broadband Infraco’s board were in support of the bid to recapture the Sita contract.
The restructuring of Broadband Infraco was also discussed, with MPs raising concerns about its financial stability. “The more we speak about BBI, the more for me the need to rationalise the [department of communications] and its entities becomes urgent. I think BBI operates within a legislative vacuum…,” said DA MP Tsholofelo Bodlani.
Merger goes nowhere
Government has for years championed the idea of a merger between Sentech and Broadband Infraco to form a state-owned digital infrastructure company that provides wholesale broadband, satellite and digital terrestrial broadcasting services, but the plan has not led anywhere. Committee members said it was time for reflection on how to rationalise the entities and amend legislation to do so.
Zowa hit back at criticism that Infraco was not doing enough to get its house in order. “It’s actually a miracle that BBI has survived for so long without a cash injection from national treasury…,” he said.
Read: Sentech is in dire straits
Zandile Kabini, the chair of the Infraco board, told MPs that several measures have been put in place to turn around the entity, including asking for government guarantees, short-term bridge financing and dealing with late payments from the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa. It has also frozen hiring. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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