I am pleased to Table the report on the filling of the vacancy in the Council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa. As the term of office of Mr Mthobeli Zokwe was terminated in June this year, the Portfolio Committee on Communications invited the public to nominate suitable candidates for the post. The committee received 86 nominations from the public. It eventually decided on interviewing nine candidates. Unfortunately, two candidates withdrew at the last minute.
Having conducted the interviews, two weeks ago, the Committee reports unanimously that the following two candidates, Mr Khulile Boqwana and Mr William Stucke be recommended to the Minister of Communications for appointment to the Council of Icasa. Of course, the Minister will have to decide on either one of the two candidates and refer the matter back to the House for a final decision.
Both Mr Boqwana and Mr Stucke are worthy candidates for appointment. Mr Boqwana has a Masters Degree in Business Leadership, a Bachelors Degree in Accounting Science and a Senior Teachers Diploma; Mr Stucke has a BSc Honours in Engineering and is a certified Electrical Engineer.
I wish to mention that the Committee is not satisfied with the overall performance of Icasa councillors - this doesn't mean that we are going to dissolve the council as we did with the SABC Board, but I think it is a matter of concern that its performance is not up to standard.
The Committee is, continually, receiving negative feedback on administrative efficiencies within Icasa; the failure to process regulatory decisions on the basis of proper and legally defensible procedures; the absence of organisational cohesion between the councillors and the senior executive management; and we are receiving reports of a number of councillors undertaking international trips that have little or no bearing on their core responsibilities.
The Committee has also noted that in terms of section 6(a) of the Icasa Act, the Minister in consultation with the NA must establish a performance management system to monitor and evaluate the performance of Icasa's chairperson and other councillors.
The performance management system involves certain key performance indicators as a yardstick for measuring the performance of the councillors; setting measurable performance targets; and establishing a procedure to measure and review the performance of each councillor at least once a year.
The evaluation of the performance of the chairperson and the councillors must be conducted by a panel constituted by the Minister in consultation with the NA; and a report by the panel must be submitted to the NA for consideration.
To the best of our knowledge, the former late Minister Ivy Matsepe Cassaburi had not established such a system. Consequently, Icasa councillors have not been fairly and properly evaluated although anecdotal evidence from the public suggests that the situation is less than satisfactory.
The Committee, therefore, in recommending the two candidates for appointment to the Council, urges the Minister to formalise the performance management system as a matter of urgency so that a discernible instrument is available to evaluate and assess the work of the Icasa councillors.
The Committee recommends that the report be approved by the House and the names of Mr Khulile Boqwana and Mr William Stucke are referred to the Minister for consideration. Thank you very much.
There was no debate.
Declaration of vote:
Madam Deputy Speaker, although the DA, with the help of the opposition parties, has reached an agreement on the naming of the two candidates to the Icasa Board, the DA has concerns.
The DA states it clearly that the candidate nominated by the DA, Mr William Stucke, has the ability to spark or uplift Icasa's day-to-day business. The DA is concerned that Icasa is not doing business according to the law. Icasa has been criticised for continual delays in publishing regulations, drafting ill-thought-out and meaningless regulations, and its inability to keep qualified staff.
Secondly, why is Icasa taking so long to act on the high cost of interconnecting? Icasa needs a board that will ensure that those involved do what is expected of them. For example, Icasa has a database of frequency spectrum allocations, but it refuses permission to allow anyone to see it.
In the interviews of the Portfolio Committee on Communications with the candidates, it was stated that the database contained sensitive state information. However, military-assigned frequencies are more or less the same throughout the world, so there was no secret about that.
What are they really hiding? Why does Minister Siphiwe Nyanda not lower interconnecting fees using the policy directive that is given by the Electronic Communications Act which will effectively force Icasa to lower those fees?
Die onbeholpenheid van Okosa kan die inwerkingstelling na digitale televisie laat struikel. In 'n hofsaak wat op 15 September vanjaar aangehoor word, s e.tv dat die implimentering van Okosa se regulasies vir Suid-Afrika se digitale oorskakelingsplan gestaak moet word, omdat dit die bedryf te veel geld sal kos.
In die dringende interdikaansoek s e.tv die volgende, en ek haal aan: