SITA welcomes charter third draft

By Tracy Burrows for SITA

Johannesburg, 14 May 2004

As the ICT industry meets at an indaba today to discuss the third draft of the industry's empowerment charter, the State IT Agency (SITA) has welcomed the guidelines in the draft.

An indaba is under way at Vodaworld on the third draft, which was released on Monday. The third draft contains proposed black economic empowerment (BEE) targets for the first time and does not exclude multinationals from the core components of the scorecard.

SITA says in a statement: "An improvement in focus and emphasis from the first two drafts, the latest draft adds impetus to the debates about ownership and control in the sector, not only for local companies, but also for multinationals."

SITA has already voiced its stance for true empowerment and against fronting, and emphasises its support for this process. "We also welcome the participation of all the stakeholders in order to ensure that the charter, when adopted, represents the aspirations of the sector as a whole."

SITA notes that SA is ranked the 20^th largest consumer of ICT products in the world, putting its contribution to about 0.5% of the global ICT revenue. For this, SITA believes that the local ICT industry should embrace all efforts geared at ensuring a level playing field and participation of previously disadvantaged individuals.