However, In a desperate bid to protect the gravy train, our lawmakers are so blinded by greed and cartel protection that they have no clue what they are trying to legislate against, and then they write their laws so poorly that they are forced to selectively enforce them as they see fit.
Telecommunication is widely defined as the transmitting of information over a distance. Distance is acheived by any medium, cable, wireless, space, etc. and Information is widely defined to include data.
ICASA has to give type approval to any equipment that is capable of transmitting information over a distance. Can we appreciate the magnitude of that. Your PC hard drive transmits information over a distance (there are no limits to the regulated distance in the act), nearly every component of your PC handles and transmits data at some stage over some distance. A white board is used to transmit information over a distance, as is a digital projector, as is a ball point pen.
Routers and switches which do not connect directly to the telecommunication network of telkom/sno (highly connected government fatcats) are not excluded from this type approval. The type approval then extends to interconnected devices indirectly interconnected to these networks (although interconnection is not the criteria for type approval - I am just illustrating a point). By extension then your hard drive, wired cctv camera, and a myriad of other components used everyday, are "indirectly connected" to the PSTN, meaning that not only must all these items be type approved, but you need an ICASA licence to use a hard drive or CCTV camera.
To further demonstrate how this legislation is designed to protect the interests of a priviledged few, put yourselves in the shoes of a "previously disadvantaged" (that is who the act claims to be assisting) small company that attempts to import any of these compnents.
Upon entry they will be detained for inspection and written release by SANS (R9000.00 CB test report and R1070 Letter of Authority) if they use electrical power. Then they need to be approved by ICASA with another table of fees, even the sticker eventually issued must be paid for.
But that is not the worst. if you have a 108mbps model and a 54 mbps model say TN108X and TN054X you shall pay those fees and follow those procedures for both items.
To top it all , if importer Y has already obtained SANS and ICASA approval for model TN108X and importer BEE decides to Import TN108X importer BEE must now follow the whole procedure and pay the same fees again.
Products that are certified by the USA and UK and other european countries by issuance of the CE or UL mark, are not good enough for this backward third world country, on the strength of those certificates.No South Africa wants a CB Test Report and Certificate, regardless of those certifications. The percentage of manufacturers in the world who ascribe to a CB Certification is less than 5%.
Is it any wonder that the law cannot be applied consistently. It is written and rewritten so often, that we have clear evidence of hidden motive and agenda. If the lawmakers actually had the intention to do what they say, they could use clear and unambigous language, but they are trying to mask the real motives (enrich a priviledged few fatcats) within the law. And law being what it is, they just cannot achieve their objectives with the obscure wording they are trying to use, hence the constant need to revise and rewrite it.
Don't be fooled. While the preamble states that this act is designed to faciliate access to electronic communication, it is clearly designed to exclude the majority of south africans from any financial benefit from this technology, you see that is the actual intent, to protect the financial benefit of telkom and now a new clique of specially selected and connected individuals who will milk this technology (which belongs to everybody) for financial gain.
. Always wanted to go to parliament...