SA`s biggest information and communications technology (ICT) industry associations have joined forces to form a working group to pave the way for talks on an ICT empowerment charter.
Chairman Dali Mpofu introduced the members of the working group at a press conference in Johannesburg yesterday and announced the framework to form the basis of talks on the charter, which is expected to be ready early next year.
The working group includes representatives from the Electronics Industries Federation, of which Mpofu is president, the Black IT Forum, the Computer Society of SA, the Information Technology Association, the SA Communications Forum, Information Industry SA and the SA Chamber of Business.
Mpofu says the working group was formed because there is a clear need for an empowerment charter in the ICT sector.
"Following minister Alec Erwin`s broad-based empowerment charter, and comments made by the president in February, it became clear that government wanted the key sectors of the economy, like the ICT sector, to have empowerment charters.
"However, government has continually stated that an ICT empowerment charter should be industry-driven. The working group was therefore formed to encourage participation from the industry and gain consensus from the industry for an ICT empowerment charter."
To this end, the group will consult all players in the industry before it holds a two-day indaba in September.
Mpofu says the aim of the consultation process and the indaba is to define exactly what the ICT sector is and consult on key empowerment issues like skills development, job creation, empowerment at the company level and employee share ownership schemes.
Because of the diversity of the industry, he says the indaba was deliberately scheduled for September to allow time for discussion so that a draft document could be compiled before the meeting.
"The working group has drawn up a framework for discussion which will be continually revised through consultation running up to the indaba. There will then be further consultation in the compiling of a draft empowerment charter that will be submitted to government for further discussion," Mpofu says.
He says the working group reaches players who do not belong to industry associations and will be expanded to include as many of the sector`s key stakeholders as possible.
The empowerment issue has been under debate in the sector for some time. Andile Ngcaba, the outspoken director-general of the Department of Communications, caused a stir in September when he referred to the IT industry as lily white and the least transformed sector in SA. While organisations like the Black IT Forum have been prominent in trying to promote black IT companies, empowerment within the ICT industry is considered to be slow.
Despite this, Mpofu says he is confident the working group will be able to unite the industry in producing an empowerment charter.
"We will succeed in producing a charter through the process of consultation. We have already consulted extensively with the departments of public service, trade and industry, and communications. Furthermore, we have set out to be inclusive in the process, so that all can contribute to the formation of the charter.
"For this reason, we have set aside three months before the indaba and time afterwards for consultation because no two-day meeting will be able to achieve anything on its own."
Mpofu says the charter will set the minimum standard for empowerment in the industry and the time frame for which it is to be achieved. This will happen through the setting of targets on each indicator, which will be established after consultation with the industry and government. Ownership and control definitions will also be included within the charter.
Sar'e Grobler of Trade and Investment SA says the ICT development council chaired by Erwin, associations representing industry and professionals in the industry, along with the ICT empowerment charter working group, will be consulted to ensure core elements like mechanisms used to achieve transformation and the setting of targets are included in the charter.
"Once an agreement has been reached, the minister will issue a code of good practice for the sector that will be gazetted," Grobler says.
To facilitate industry discussion, the ICT empowerment charter working group has launched a Web site. Mpofu says the framework discussion document will be published on the site within the next week.
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