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ICASA reaches out to consumers

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist
Johannesburg, 10 Mar 2008

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) will reach out to the public by hosting a consumer rights month celebration, as well as embarking on an awareness campaign across all nine provinces.

The regulator's consumer rights month celebration will be held on 15 March at Makhuduthamaga Stadium, in GaSekhukhune, Limpopo province.

The aim of the event is to support international consumer rights day and make the general public aware of their right to ICT services, affordable prices and quality services, says ICASA spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela.

"Consumer awareness is about the authority's function of interfacing with the public, public outreach, information dissemination to all, regardless of their status in society, as well as consumer complaints handling procedures," he says.

ICASA will also host a number of consumer awareness events, starting in Gauteng on Wednesday and ending on 31 March in the Western Cape, he says. The full schedule of ICASA's planned activities is on the regulator's Web site.

Sekgoela notes that expected participants in these provincial events include ICASA councillors and executive management, licensees and various stakeholders.

Last year, ICASA set up a nine-member consumer advisory panel that proactively looks at consumer protection issues.

The panel is chaired by Loren Braithwaite Kabosha, a former corporate attorney in an international legal practice; Diane Terblanche, chairman of the National Consumer Tribunal and deputy chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority of SA; and Ibrahim Mohamed, chief director in the office of consumer protection at the Department of Trade and Industry.

ICASA also has a Consumer Complaints Committee, which regularly hears consumer complaints against ICT providers.

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