The SA Council for Natural and Scientific Professions (SACNASP) says IT scientists who are not yet registered with it are breaking a law in effect since 2003.
SACNASP registrar AJ de Klerk says information science is regarded as part of the mathematical sciences for the purposes of the Natural Scientific Professions Act. IT scientists with the appropriate qualifications have to register with the council in the same way health practitioners, lawyers and engineers have to with the relevant professional bodies, De Klerk notes.
Council VP Dr Dhiro Gihwala recently told Parliament SACNASP existed to protect the public against malpractice and to maintain a register of practicing scientists. He told MPs that, at the end of last month, there were 3 667 registered natural scientists in the country.
De Klerk could not tell ITWeb how many information scientists were registered with the council.
Gihwala added that he believed the ratio of unregistered to registered scientists was three to one. Answering a question from a member of the National Assembly's Science and Technology Portfolio Committee, Gihwala said he "did not know if the unregistered scientists knew that they were breaking the law by not being registered".
Many did not even know about the existence of the council, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group quoted him as saying.
Asked why scientists were declining to sign up, he said some considered it a bother and others did not want to pay the registration fee.
There was also no sanction on companies employing such scientists and, to date, no unregistered scientist has ever been prosecuted for contravening the law.
The Act's penalty section provides for fines up to the equivalent of three years of imprisonment or double the remuneration received while working without registration.
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