The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications left for London and S~ao Paolo this weekend to investigate how the UK and Brazil have dealt with digital TV migration, regulation and broadband issues.
Among the Members of Parliament on the trip are Ismail Vadi (ANC), committee chairman; and the ANC's committee whip, Eric Kholwane. There are also a number of other ANC MPs and opposition members, including Patricia de Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats; Niekie van den Berg, the Democratic Alliance's shadow communications minister; and Juli Killian, Cope communications spokesperson.
The committee will be accompanied by at least five support staff, including the committee secretary, two communications personnel and two interpreters.
Most of the members will be back in the country on or around Saturday, 31 July.
Vadi says the trip is needed as the committee has to get a clearer understanding of the implications and benefits of the European and Brazilian/Japanese standards used in digital TV broadcasting.
He says the committee will also debate several Bills later in the term, such as the Public Service Broadcasting Bill and the ICASA Amendment Bill, and needs to see how these issues were handled in other countries.
“We have a very intensive timetable and the trip is jam-packed with meetings. However, we will not be meeting with any industry representatives while we are overseas, just the statutory bodies and our parliamentary counterparts,” he says.
Van den Berg says his main objective for going on the trip is to ensure the committee is not overwhelmed, or sold a particular technology or point of view.
“I will be there to ensure the committee is not 'soft-soaped' into buying into one or other technology,” he notes.
Killian says the trip should have happened some time ago, and it has become absolutely necessary in light of the changes the Department of Communications has proposed in changing digital TV migration standards.
Vadi says the committee will compile a complete report at the end of the trip, and all meetings will be transparent and fully accounted for.
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