Parliament yesterday rejected an attempt by the Department of Communications (DOC) to present a briefing about the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) from a four-year-old document.
The department was told to reschedule for next week.
A less than impressed Parliamentary communications committee, the DOC's oversight committee, was supposed to have been briefed by the department on the current ITU conference. The event is happening in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, running from 4 to 22 October.
Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda is attending the conference on SA's behalf.
The ITU is a United Nations body that serves as a means of setting standards between countries for telecommunications and other forms, and also deals with issues such as cyber security.
It develops and proposes treaties, such as the one on digital TV migration that provides protection to countries undergoing the change from analogue to digital broadcasting systems.
The Parliamentary Portfolio on Communications wanted to hear what the ITU is all about, how it affects the country, and if it only has to take note of the conference, or if there would be a treaty or agreement that would have to be ratified.
The ITU holds a plenipotentiary conference every four years as a means to strategise its future activities.
Instead of presenting what is happening now, DOC chief director of international affairs and trade Moseamo Sebola attempted to present a document concerning the ITU conference that occurred in 2006, in Antalya, Turkey.
Eric Kholwane (ANC) said: “Trying to present us with a document that is four years old is very wrong.... I suggest we don't adopt it.”
Sebola tried to explain that a three-page memorandum had been submitted to the speaker of Parliament's office explaining what the presentation would be about. However, the committee stated they had not seen it.
The opposition parties present, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Cope, agreed with Kholwane's suggestion.
Johnny de Lange (ANC) asked whether the ITU conference briefing was supposed to be something Parliament was only to take not of, or if it was going to produce a treaty that had to be ratified. The DOC responded that there would be “something to be ratified”.
De Lange continued by saying there was a problem, not just with the DOC, but other government departments. He said they produced treaties to Parliament without any briefing of what they were about, even though there were opportunities for the engagement of the legislature.
Niekki van den Berg, DA deputy communications spokesperson, said: “What is worrying me is that this thing [the 2006 ITU conference document] was lying in a drawer for many years. The department expects us to rubber-stamp it. I don't think the voters would satisfied if we did our jobs in such a slack manner.”
Communications committee chairman Ismail Vadi ended the meeting by telling the DOC officials to reappear next week with the required information.
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