{"id":547112,"date":"2005-10-25T12:38:57","date_gmt":"2005-10-25T12:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/547112-state-hints-at-flexibility-on-changes-to-icasa-bill.html"},"modified":"2005-10-25T12:38:57","modified_gmt":"2005-10-25T12:38:57","slug":"state-hints-at-flexibility-on-changes-to-icasa-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/547112-state-hints-at-flexibility-on-changes-to-icasa-bill.html","title":{"rendered":"State hints at flexibility on changes to Icasa bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

The communications department appears to have bowed to industry opposition to its proposals to change the way Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) councillors are appointed or removed from office. <\/font><\/p>\n

Director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole indicated a willingness to make changes to the Icasa Amendment Bill yesterday during public hearings on the bill held by Parliament’s communications portfolio committee. <\/font><\/p>\n

The bill is intended to strengthen the role of the regulator and align its functions with the requirements of the Convergence Bill. It also provides for incorporating postal regulations under Icasa and giving Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri the power to appoint and remove Icasa councillors. <\/font><\/p>\n

Players in the industry such as the National Association of Broadcasters, the second national operator and Cell C, as well as opposition political parties have expressed concern over the enhanced powers given to the minister. <\/font><\/p>\n

They said this would severely compromise the independence of councillors and would therefore be unconstitutional. <\/font><\/p>\n

Icasa councillor Tracy Cohen emphasised the importance of a public and transparent appointment and removal process when making the Icasa submission to the committee. This was necessary, she said, for the public to retain its trust in the impartiality and objectivity of the decisions of the body. <\/font><\/p>\n

Currently the communications committee conducts a selection process, and then recommends a list of proposed names of councillors to President Thabo Mbeki. <\/font><\/p>\n

Shope-Mafole said this did not always result in the best candidates being chosen because of the political "horse trading" that went on between political parties and the final result would reflect political preferences rather than the selection of the most highly skilled candidate for the job. <\/font><\/p>\n

The committee is now considering a panel mechanism tied to parliamentary ratification as an alternative appointment procedure. <\/font><\/p>\n

Communications Deputy Minister Roy Padayachee said government "was open" to modifying the bill. He supported the bill’s proposal for a panel chosen by the minister as selection would take place in terms of strict criteria and would not have to entertain trade-offs. <\/font><\/p>\n

"We are in favour of a remarkable degree of independence in the selection process, and are open to changing the model," he said in an interview. "We are trying to find the best model that satisfies our need to ensure that people of substantive expertise are appointed as councillors." Padayachee said that there was no intention to undermine the constitution. <\/font><\/p>\n

Shope-Mafole also indicated on Monday that the committee’s role in removing councillors might be restored. <\/font><\/p>\n

Democratic Alliance communications spokeswoman Dene Smuts welcomed the direction in which discussions on the bill were going. The composition of the selection panel should be written into the amendment bill, she said. <\/font><\/p>\n

Inet-Bridge<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The communications department appears to have bowed to industry opposition to its proposals to change the way Icasa councillors are appointed or removed from office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}