Final charter draft not so final?

By Itumeleng Mogaki, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 22 Apr 2005

The so-called final draft of the ICT empowerment charter may not be so final after all, with two industry sub-sectors calling for the charter to be aligned with the Department of Trade and Industry`s (DTI`s) Code of Good Practice.

Both the Electronics Industry Federation (EIF) - claiming to represent up to 25% of the local IT industry - and the multinationals in the charter steering committee have called for the draft charter to be brought closer to the guidelines in the DTI`s code.

Both sub-sectors made the call during presentations to the charter steering committee in Johannesburg this week.

Representing the multinationals, the American Chamber of Commerce raised a number of issues it wanted addressed, and made several recommendations to the empowerment steering committee.

Chamber executive director Luanne Grant says the multinationals raised issues such as the code of good practice, the guidelines on enterprises, procurement, skills and development. She adds that the meeting with the committee was interactive and promising.

"We commented on a number of issues including the fact that the charter should be more closely aligned to the Code of Good Practice. We are also concerned about the governance of the ICT charter council."

Grant declines to comment further on some of the issues, but says discussions also focused on the skills shortage in the ICT industry.

Grant says the steering committee is likely to consider all concerns and recommendations made by various sub-sectors.

"The steering committee will take all the proposals made into consideration, and then once they`ve made changes, the draft will be made available for final consultation, before the 'final, final` draft is sent to Cabinet."

Earlier this week, the EIF said that while it supported the charter`s aims, it might have to align itself with the DTI`s code. Federation head Roger Dawes said the EIF felt changes were needed to the charter, although it still supported the charter and was not looking to pull out of the process.

Joe Mjwara, chairman of the ICT empowerment charter steering committee, has conceded that more amendments to the charter may be needed, but maintains the process is on track.