Outstanding ICT empowerment charter issues will be resolved ahead of the 1 March deadline, says Dali Mpofu, working group chairman.
Speaking after yesterday`s multi-stakeholder steering committee meeting, Mpofu said the working group would continue to deal with "outstanding" issues identified at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) workshop late last year.
"Progress is being made in relation to these issues and we are still confident we will release the charter by the 1 March implementation date," says Mpofu.
"The sector can look forward to a year in which the policy formation phase of the charter will definitely be finalised. The more difficult implementation phase will kick-start into the next 10 years.
"Since last year November, the steering committee on the ICT charter has been meeting every Wednesday at the Nedlac offices, and yesterday was the resumption of these meetings."
The steering committee is made up of representatives of all partners - government, labour, community and industry - and its mandate is to deal with a set of identified outstanding issues.
Mpofu says issues to be concluded include government finalising the codes of good practice and establishing the BEE advisory council. These will give much needed clarity to the sector and specific enterprises of what is expected from them in the field of broad-based BEE and the economic transformation of SA, he says.
Asked about comments that the charter could prove challenging and "demoralising" for the industry, Mpofu says: "As far as this is concerned, we do not wish to make any comment.
"If anyone has constructive suggestions, they are entitled - like any other South African - to submit these to the working group.
"We are not prepared to engage in a self-serving public debate of these important issues outside of the defined process, however misguided those commentators might be," says Mpofu.
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