The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications (PPCC) has set a date for interviewing potential replacements for the four Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) councillors that vacated their seats last year.
In a Parliamentary note issued yesterday, PPCC chairman Joyce Molio-Moropa invited institutions and/or individuals to nominate candidates to fill the ICASA council vacancies, which have been up in the air for the past four months.
Nominations and enquiries relating to the positions can be addressed to PPCC secretary, Thembinkosi Ngoma*. The deadline for submissions is 27 February.
Moloi-Moropa says persons appointed must be "committed to fairness, freedom of expression, openness and accountability, and must be representative of a broad cross-section of the population".
Nominees must also have suitable qualifications, expertise and experience in the fields of - among others - broadcasting, electronic communications and postal policy or operations, public policy development, electronic engineering, law, information technology, content in any form, consumer protection, education, economics and finance, or any other related expertise or qualifications, she says.
Interviews for the shortlisted candidates will take place on 25 March, the same day the PPCC is set to interview candidates to fill the SABC board vacancy left by outgoing chairperson Ellen Tshabalala.
It has been almost four months since controversy erupted over what was seen as communications minister Faith Muthambi's premature discharge of former councillors William Currie, Joseph Lebooa, Miki Ndhlovu and William Stucke. The powers that be were criticised for dragging their feet on filling vacant councillor positions.
Muthambi said last year the departure of the four councillors would in no way affect the smooth functioning and decision-making of the regulator, adding the council quorum was based on the majority of the councillors in office at a given time. With the said councillors' exit, ICASA's board was left with five members.
The process of appointing new councillors to their four-year seats starts with the PPCC advertising the posts, and then follows a nomination and vetting process and, finally, approval by the National Assembly. The whole process can take anything from a few weeks, to two months.
* Submissions can be made to Ngoma via the following means: Posted to 3rd floor, 90 Plein Street, Cape Town, 8000; or e-mailed to tngoma@parliament.gov.za. For telephonic enquiries, call 021 403 3733 or 083 709 8407.
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