NCOP critical of RICA

Johannesburg, 21 Sept 2007

Members of the Security and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Parliament's upper chamber, have expressed scepticism at some amendments to the Regulation of Interception and Provision of Communication-related Information Act (RICA) passed by the National Assembly. They said the amendments were "unfair, unreasonable and ludicrous".

The National Assembly is the lower house of Parliament, while NCOP is a supervisory chamber that represents the interests of the provinces.

Kgoshi Mathupa Mokoena, the committee's chairman, called "ludicrous" a section in the Amendment Bill that exempted fans arriving in SA for the 2010 Soccer World Cup from a requirement to register their phones locally before being allowed roaming rights.

Mokoena asked how one was to go about identifying and exempting soccer fans only. The record of the hearing notes that he continued that this was "an impossible task which seemed ludicrous, and was not really capable of implementation". After queuing at immigration for extensive time periods, tourists would have to queue again in order to register their SIM-cards. "This was also time-consuming and may be unreasonable," the minutes of the meeting add.

Senior state law advisor Sarel Robbertse, who had to field Mokoena's questions, added that, to his knowledge, only SA had a provision in law to require this registration. Robbertse said Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Singapore and the European Union also had legislation that required mobile phone users to register their addresses, report the loss of phones to police and record the details of the buyers of privately sold handsets.

The justice department's chief director for legislation Lawrence Bassett concedes some of the provisions are onerous, but says they are necessary to fight crime.

Mpumalanga NCOP representative Florence Nyanda expressed concern about the address requirement in rural areas, where many people were totally reliant on mobile phones in the absence of fixed-lines, but had no determinable address.

Robbertse answered that rural people could use a variety of addresses where they were known, including churches, schools or stores.

Mokoena also described as "patently unfair" the requirement to report lost or stolen handsets and SIM cards to the authorities, saying police stations were just too thinly spread in most rural areas.

Western Cape representative Novello Mack added that the "disastrous state of the Department of Home Affairs with regard to identity documents" might also render the Bill's requirement that buyers show an ID when purchasing a handset or SIM card unrealistic.

He said that in an era when most people are moving away from land-lines towards cellular technology, such "red tape" only served to restrict the service.