Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members and guests, I feel honoured to participate in this debate, Budget Vote 24. I will be speaking on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa; communications; and gender development.
Icasa is the national regulator for the South African communication sector responsible for the regulation of broadcasting, postal and telecommunication services. It is charged with the responsibility to licence telecommunications, postal and broadcasting service providers, monitoring compliance of licences against their licence conditions, developing policy that manages the frequency spectrum and protecting consumers within the communications environment.
Icasa was established in July 2000 as a merger of the telecoms regulator, Telecommunications Regulators Association of Southern Africa and the broadcasting regulator, the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Icasa's vision is to be a catalyst in the transformation of the country into an information-oriented society and knowledge-based economy. Its mission is to create a competitive environment for delivering a wide range of high quality communication and postal services at affordable prices in order to assist in the overall economic growth and social development of the country.
Over the five-year period Icasa has achieved the following: It launched the mobile number portability in November 2006, which enables subscribers to switch from one service provider to another without losing their original numbers, and the ten digit dialling system was also launched. This system and the new international dialling code have increased their number capacity by two million numbers per exchange area in order to meet the needs of existing and new operators; the licensing of the second national operator, SNO, Neotel; it has collected the Universal Service Fund from the licence operators and imposed the obligation on operators to address the socioeconomic needs of the country. Money from the Universal Service Fund will be used during the digital migration process as a subsidy to buy set- top boxes for poor households.
Despite the abovementioned successes over the five-year period, the regulator had some challenges, for instance, it encountered difficulty in attracting and retaining highly qualified staff. Furthermore, it was underfunded, inefficient and had lengthy processes in key processes such as licensing. These factors undermined the credibility of the regulator in dealing with operators who could not provide services in rural areas and under-resourced areas where it is not profitable to do so.
In 2006, Icasa received a qualified audit report. There were irregularities in the tender procurement processes. The Auditor-General also identified a deficit of R33 million, whereas a deficit of only R5 million was reported. It was also recorded that its performance evaluation system was not implemented properly to measure individual performance against predetermined objectives. This led to staff members being paid bonuses totalling R2,4 million in equal proportions.
In May 2007-08, Icasa's audit report was unqualified. However, at the end of the 2007-08 financial year, the Auditor-General identified the following matters: A councillor whose term had expired in May 2007 had not been replaced; a performance management system to evaluate the performance of the chairperson and councillors was not properly implemented; and the statement of financial performance identified that there were fruitless and wasteful expenditure that the regulator incurred. This relates particularly to money lost due to bookings for a conference that did not materialise; and the regulator paid the SA Revenue Service approximately R1 million in penalties for the late payment of the Pay As You Earn and other deductions. The Auditor-General also identified irregular expenditure resulting from interest charged for the late payment of overdue accounts. Currently, the Portfolio Committee on Communications will be advertising for nominations to fill the position of an Icasa councillor. This initiative is necessitated by the fact one of the councillors' term will expire at the end of June.
I will be bringing in another dimension in terms of information communications technologies, ICTs, ie a dimension on gender development. It is important to note that gender equity also runs through all pieces of legislation in South Africa. In this regard, emphasis has been on promoting access to employment, skills development and violence against women and related legislation, including the following: Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, Act 4 of 2000; Employment Equity Act, 1998; Skills Development Act; Public Service Act, 1994; White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Sector; Electronic Communications Act; and several others, like the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and the Black Economic Empowerment ICT Charter.
The operations of the Department of Communications and its entities in the communications sector are mainly guided by the Electronic Communications Act, Act 36 of 2005. The Electronic Communications Act, ECA, states clearly that one of its objects is to promote the empowerment, in particular, of women in the country's information and communications technology sector. Furthermore, it states that broadcasting services, viewed collectively, should cater for a broad range of services and specifically for the programming needs of women, among other groups.
In addition, the ECA requires that the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa, Usaasa, must, in the selection of the staff, promote the empowerment of historically disadvantaged persons, including women.
Usaasa's policy on gender is informed by the SA National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality and the Employment Equity Act, Act 55 of 1998. Its objectives are to create an enabling environment for translating departmental commitment to gender equality into reality, to promote a new attitude, values, behaviour and a culture of respect for all human beings in line with the National Policy Framework.
The policy is due for evaluation at the end of the year. At Icasa these policies are embedded in their operations, including its licensing procedures, where gender representation is one of the requirements necessary for providing a licence. [Time expired.] Thank you. [Applause.]