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Changes to ICASA law released

Paul Vecchiatto
By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent
Johannesburg, 30 Jun 2010

The Department of Communications (DOC) has released the amendments to the law that governs the communications regulator ICASA, but the question remains if this will beef up the authority or hobble it.

The draft amendments to the ICASA Act were promulgated in the Government Gazette dated 25 June with some of the key objectives being to clear the lines of authority between the councilors, who are appointed jointly by Parliament and the minister of communications, to increase the responsibilities of the chairperson, and establish a Tariff Advisory Council.

Changes to ICASA's governing law have been expected for some time as the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, industry and the Department of Communications have heavily criticised the authority on a number of issues.

ICASA was slammed for its tardiness in handling interconnection regulations, its vacillating over the Vodacom unbundling and stock exchange listing, and the fact that it often becomes bogged down in legal action initiated by incumbent telcos.

“What we need to see is a speeding up of ICASA's decision making process,” says Niekkie van den Berg, Democratic Alliance shadow communications minister. “We have come across numerous examples of it delaying decisions, because it doesn't seem to have the capacity to make them.”

A member of a telecommunications company's regulatory division says the changes were expected, but they do not necessarily mean that the governance issues will be sorted out at ICASA.

“The authority needs one person to be accountable. Just changing a title will not help. The Public Finance Management Act is clear on this,” the lawyer says. “The big issue is that ICASA should be independent to make its regulations, but there are some proposed clauses that will raise concern.

“For instance, the bill says, when addressing the council's chairperson responsibilities, [that they may] 'perform such other functions as the Minister may determine, subject to prior notification being given to the National Assembly'. This could be very problematic as it can be used as a means to direct the council to do certain things subject to notification and not approval by Parliament,” the person says.

Ismail Vadi, chairperson of the communications committee says that it is unlikely the bill will come before Parliament before the last quarter of the year.

“We have a very full program for the third quarter looking at digital migration and some other issues. However, ICASA remains a primary concern for us,” he says.

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