The commissions and omissions of the past may revisit Parliament this year with the pending Telkom listing and changes having to be made to two bits of contentious electronic-related legislation.
While the Telkom listing is considered fait accompli, two acts passed last year, the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act and the Regulation of the Interception and Provision of Communication Related Information (Interception and Monitoring) Act have come under severe criticism. They will be re-examined by the communications and justice portfolio committees.
While no date has been given for the listing of a portion of state-owned telecommunications utility Telkom on the Johannesburg and New York stock exchanges, the process is considered to be too far down the road for Parliament to do anything to stop it.
Telecommunications lawyer Lisa Thornton, head of law firm Lisa Thornton Attorneys, says despite controversy surrounding the process of the Telkom listing and the lost opportunities, it is an accepted fact.
"There is little that Parliament will do about it now. Although the listing will attract public comment, it is almost a done deal," she says.
Just how much of Telkom will be listed and what the value will be is still anyone`s guess, but most observers and commentators expect that between 25% and a third will be listed with a value of about R6 billion.
"Criticism has been levelled that government has missed a window of opportunity - before the general downturn of the telecommunications industry," Thornton says.
Political parties opposed to the concept of privatisation have already made their feelings known and may offer more comment in the coming session.
"No one has offered a viable alternative to privatisation, so even if the critics do come out in full force, little notice will be taken of them," says Lynne Abrahams, a project co-ordinator at the Parliamentary Monitoring Group.
The ECT and Interception and Monitoring Acts have come in for severe criticism for being badly drafted and not adequately covering the issues they are supposed to address.
"The ECT Act is the only bit of legislation where the application depends on a definition that is not defined," says Reinhardt Buys, MD of law firm Buys Incorporated. "It does not define what an electronic transaction is."
A thorny issue in the Interception and Monitoring Act is that there is no legislation making it compulsory to blacklist stolen cellphones.
"Part of the problem here is that the cellphone industry seems to be in two minds about it," Abrahams says. "Some want blacklisting and others don`t."
One bill that will come before Parliament is the Post Bank Bill, which will separate the Post Office`s postal and banking functions and make them two distinct legal entities. This is expected to be floored before April, and will fall under the auspices of the communications portfolio committee.
There are also hopes, but not great expectations, that the telecommunications department may present its proposed legislation covering convergence between broadcasting and the electronic media.
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