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The Department of Communications is the centre of policy-making and policy review for the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors in the country. This includes policy-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Telkom SA Ltd, The South African Post Office (SAPO Ltd), Sentech, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), National Electronic Media Institute of SA (NEMISA) as well as the regulators the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and the Universal Services Agency (USA). All these including the Department fall under the Ministry of Communications.

The Department aims to enable ordinary people to have access to information and communication technologies (ICT), which include the following services: telemedicine enabling rural clients to get diagnosis from specialist in urban medical centres; tele-education enabling the country to reverse the illiteracy rate through distant education and for convenience measures such as teleshopping and telebanking.

	Johannesburg.

The Department's main policy objectives ensure that the development of information communication sectors is well regulated, and that the services provided are acceptable to accelerate the penetration of services into underserviced communities.

Telecommunications is the fastest growing industry in South Africa. Government recognises the centrability of telecommunications and information technology (IT) sectors in economic development and its telecommunications policy has played a cardinal role in revolutionising the industry.

1 September 2002 the official South African portal (www.safrica.info) was launched. It is the first of its kind in the world and presents an energy point of all South African government on-line services, all parastatals and all South African businesses.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation is the country's public broadcaster with a natural radio network. Because South Africa is a country of diverse cultures and languages, broadcasting is done in all 11 official languages weekly. To cater for those people living with disabilities there is sign language interpretation in certain programmes.

In South Africa there is press freedom. The Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Barriers rank South Africa the 26 th in the world. There are daily newspapers and weekly ones. The main foreign news agencies in South Africa are AFP Associated Press, Deutche Presse Agentur, Reuters and United Press International.