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Paris Mashile is back as ICASA chair

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 05 Sept 2017
ICASA acting chairperson Paris Mashile.
ICASA acting chairperson Paris Mashile.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has appointed former chairperson Paris Mashile as its acting chairperson, the regulator said in a statement this afternoon. He replaces outgoing acting chairperson Rubben Mohlaloga, who bids farewell to the regulator today.

Mohlaloga joined ICASA on 1 July 2013 as a councillor and was appointed as acting chairperson on 22 June 2016, a role he fulfilled until the end of his term. ICASA says that during his tenure as both councillor and acting chairperson, he was "instrumental in making sure ICASA discharges its constitutional and statutory mandate without fear, favour or prejudice".

He led a number of strategic regulatory projects, including the process for licensing of IMT spectrum, the licensing of free to air television broadcasting service, and the review and updating of the National Radio Frequency Plan, 2017.

The regulator says that to ensure continuity, the council of ICASA unanimously agreed to appoint Mashile, who was already a councillor, as the acting chairperson pending the formal appointment of a permanent chairperson.

Mashile already served as chairperson for a five-year term that ended on 30 June 2010.

Mashile thanked Mohlaloga for his contribution to the sector and for his "courageous leadership of the organisation during his tenure".

"We are particularly grateful that he leaves behind an organisation that has turned the corner in respect of its corporate performance, having stabilised the organisational performance level above 70% over the past two years," Mashile says.

ICASA is also currently looking for a new CEO after announcing last month the departure of suspended CEO Pakamile Pongwana. He was in July placed on precautionary suspension pending an internal disciplinary process and a month later ICASA announced its "mutual separation" with Pongwana. COO Willington Ngwepe has stepped in as acting CEO until a permanent CEO is employed.

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