Charter waits on DTI

By Nicola Mawson, Contributing journalist

Johannesburg, 17 Sept 2009

The long-awaited sector charter for the ICT industry is just waiting for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to publish the final version, says the steering committee.

Steering committee deputy chairman Andile Tlhoaele says the charter is with the department, where it has been for the past six or so months. He says the department initially had queries about some of the targets, which have been resolved.

Tlhoaele explains that the charter makes provisions for ICT companies that are more practical than those contained in the BEE Code of Good Practice.

For example, he says, it is not practical to expect ICT companies to procure all their items from empowered companies in SA, as many of these items need to be imported. The DTI wanted clarity on why these allowances had been made, he says.

The committee recently explained these issues and the charter should be promulgated soon. However, the timeline is up to the DTI, says Tlhoaele.

The department was not immediately available for comment this morning.

Numerous delays

The charter has been dogged by delays since June 2003, when the process of launching the paper started. In May 2005, a “final” document was released, but this process was interrupted by the launch in 2005 of the BEE codes, with which the charter needed to be aligned.

Government gazetted the BEE Code of Good Practice, in February 2007. Tlhoaele says the charter is still necessary to protect industry players that have made transformation investments in line with the sector codes. “It's the only way we can effectively impact transformation in the sector.”

In addition, several industry role-players have raised concerns over various drafts of the document. However, Tlhoaele says all parties have agreed to the final version.

The committee has been locked in debates over the sector codes for several years. Since the first final draft in 2005, the committee has signed off on another four “final” drafts.