COULD’VE, SHOULD’VE
Five seats are up for grabs on the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa). But neither the Internet Service Providers Association (Ispa) of SA nor the Communication Users Association of SA (Cuasa), a business lobby group, has bothered to put forward candidates to fill them.
The selection and appointment process is expected to take place quite soon. The short-listing of candidates ends this week, the interviews will be conducted soon thereafter, and the appointments should be made known by mid-September.
Icasa councillors have clout. They have the power to draw up licensing conditions, prescribe regulations and host hearings into matters affecting telecoms and broadcasting.
Crucially, councillors also have the power to open the market to new offerings in radio and television and their decisions have a direct impact on consumers’ phone bills.
Cuasa spokesman Ray Webber says his group was aware it could make nominations, but could not think of anyone in particular to put forward. He does not rule out Cuasa nominating someone when the terms of the remaining four councillors end.
Ispa co-chairman Greg Massel says his group did think about making nominations but did not think the people it wanted as regulators would accept this difficult job. “You put your reputation on the line," he says.
The pay of an Icasa councillor does not match the responsibility and therefore does little to attract the candidates Ispa is looking for, says Massel.
Since the pay doesn’t seem to be an incentive, the only motivation for wanting to be a councillor has to be “patriotic duty" or a desire to build a “profile" in the sector, he says.
Looking at Icasa’s financial results for 2002/2003, Massel has a point. Councillors earned a mere R330000 for that year. The package grew to just over R500000 in 2004/2005, but people with the right skills and similar responsibilities could still earn more elsewhere.
Unlike Ispa and Cuasa, the National Association of Broadcasters of SA (NAB) did put forward nominees — four.
Despite its willingness to participate in the process, NAB executive director Johann Koster also believes councillors are underpaid. Their salaries are now on a par with those of chief directors of government departments, says Koster. He maintains that those who draw up regulations must not be paid less than those implementing them.
The pay discrepancy between officials and public representatives can be seen in Icasa’s suspended CEO earning about R645000 in 2004/2005 — well above a councillor’s salary.
Aside from the money, Koster says it’s hard to get someone to take a senior position in a troubled regulator. He thinks NAB has done well to get advocates Anton Alberts and Gregory Hamburger, along with media academic Gibson Mashilo Boloka and telecom expert Andrew Barendse, to accept nomination.
The NAB has a record of nominating strong regulators, such as two of its previous nominees, Tracy Cohen and Nadia Bulbulia, who became councillors.
Industry and consumer bodies may have missed the chance, but an individual has nominated telecom activist Rudolph Muller, the head of MyADSL website forum.
Muller is open to serving as a councillor, but hopes the parliamentary committee interviewing candidates will select people with a consumer activist or a technical background, as the council has enough lawyers.
Massel agrees such skills are important but says a large part of an Icasa councillor’s job is drawing up regulations, so legal brains are vital and technically skilled people can be hired to advise councillors.
Koster says the need for diverse backgrounds is behind the selection of its nominees: Alberts has extensive experience in media matters; Hamburger studied photography and fine art in Italy; Boloka is an at editor of media & cultural journal Critical Arts; and Barendse wrote a thesis on Telkom.
Of the 58 nominations, NAB’s are not the only ones with strong telecom backgrounds. Robert Nkuna is a former spokesman for the communications department, and Mashile Matlala a senior manager in the department.
Outgoing councillor Mamodupi Mohlala has been nominated to serve again and Lee-Ann Cassie is the only Icasa employee to have accepted nomination.
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