The Independent Communications Authority of SA's (ICASA) leadership structure has been likened to "two bulls in the same kraal", as power struggles at the regulator muddy the management waters and send staff morale tumbling.
This is according to insiders, including Joseph Lebooa, one of the councillors who has just completed his four-year term with ICASA; and Gavin Davis, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of the department now in charge of the regulator, the Department of Communications.
ICASA has, however, denied the existence of a power struggle, saying only a difference of opinion from time to time is an inevitability with any entity or structure. "ICASA council and management is not aware of any form of power struggles between management and the executive."
Last week, Lebooa sent a scathing account of the inner workings of ICASA - as experienced by him since 2010 - in the form of a 39-page exit report, to Parliament's portfolio committees on telecoms and postal services as well as communications.
In the document, Lebooa says the problems ICASA is faced with - in both strategic management and in the operations environment - could be put down mainly to a "lack of competent leadership".
He says there are two centres of power and control at ICASA - management and council - "two bulls in the same kraal and the power struggles that ensue have set this country back many years". This "everlasting enmity" between the two blocks, says Lebooa, creates "very tight boundaries" between strategic management and operations management.
He puts part of the problem down to the ICASA Act, which he believes is too prescriptive in terms of the structure of ICASA. "ICASA has both a management platform made up of an executive committee and an executive platform made up of the council."
ICASA is in a precarious and vulnerable position, following the splitting of SA's ICT ministry in May, and the consequent confusion around the body responsible for steering the regulator.
Moribund morale
Davis has also been privy to the problems ICASA faces in terms of management, and says the Communications Portfolio Committee also picked up on a number of the issues Lebooa highlights, in a recent oversight visit to ICASA.
"Staff morale is very, very low. In a meeting with all staff (excluding management), I asked whether any of the employees present had considered leaving ICASA in the previous six months. More than 95% raised their hands."
Davis says the regulator's staff raised a number of issues of concern, with a recurrent theme being the lack of clarity over who actually runs ICASA - the council or the executive management team. One staff member, says Davis, echoed Lebooa's "two bulls in the same kraal" analogy when referring to the chairperson (Stephen Mncube) and CEO (Pakamile Pongwana).
Lacking leadership
Lebooa says, in his opinion, ICASA is under-resourced - not only at a professional and technical level - but primarily at a leadership level. "This has been the auditor's comment each and every year. ICASA has lacked proper leadership from the onset until this day."
DA shadow minister of telecoms and postal services Marian Shinn says the leadership of ICASA has been a critical problem for years. "It has failed to attract depth of appropriately skilled staff, which has put a burden on those who can do the jobs required of them."
There has always been structural conflict between the council and the CEO as to who actually has the responsibility of running ICASA, says Shinn.
"There have also been many inappropriate political appointments to the ICASA council - it is now largely composed of these people. Independent thinkers and the appropriately skilled are side-lined."
There has been speculation around Muthambi's intentions with ICASA, following the premature "dismissal" of four ICASA councillors. Davis says this fuelled speculation that Muthambi wishes to control the broadcast regulator as part of government's plans to create a "department of propaganda".
Council restructure
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Muthambi intends on "re-orienting the structural configuration of ICASA's council".
In an announcements, tablings and committee reports document dated 23 September - about three weeks before controversy around the councillor dismissals erupted - National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete notes she received a letter from Muthambi on 4 August.
In the letter, Muthambi informs the National Assembly that the terms of office of ICASA councillors William Currie and Lebooa would expire on 30 September, while William Stucke and Miki Ndhlovu would depart the regulator 31 October. The speaker indicates Muthambi also notified the Assembly "that she intends re-orienting the structural configuration of the council of ICASA".
ICASA says the appointment of councillors to ICASA is a sole responsibility of the minister on approval by the National Assembly.
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