No ICT charter setback, says Mjwara

By Itumeleng Mogaki, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 20 Apr 2005

The Electronics Industry Federation`s (EIF`s) position statement will not hamper the transformation process, says Joe Mjwara, chairman of the ICT empowerment charter steering committee. However, he concedes that more amendments to the charter may be needed.

The EIF said yesterday that it was likely to adopt the Department of Trade and Industry`s (DTI`s) Code of Good Practice on empowerment, rather than the ICT empowerment charter.

The federation, which represents up to 25% of the local ICT industry, made its announcement during the empowerment steering committee`s consultations with industry stakeholders on the final draft of the charter.

The EIF said that while it supports the ICT empowerment charter process, it is required to follow the DTI`s code and could not be expected to follow two divergent sets of guidelines.

The broadcasting and telecoms sub-sectors earlier voiced similar concerns about a "double jeopardy" situation in which they would be regulated by two sets of guidelines.

Unexpected

Mjwara says the EIF presentation was "definitely not expected", but the charter steering committee had previously considered the fact that problems might arise in cases where sectors were governed by more than one set of empowerment guidelines.

EIF secretary Roger Dawes says the IT sector was supportive of the federation`s position statement and a number of industry representatives expressed a "wide range of views" during yesterday`s meeting.

Dawes says after the multinationals` presentation to be made to the steering committee by the American Chamber of Commerce this afternoon, the EIF will be in a better position to comment on the next step with regards to the decision to adopt the DTI`s code.

Dawes says the steering committee could consider bringing the ICT charter`s scorecard closer to the DTI`s code.

He stresses that while the EIF feels changes are needed to the charter, it still supports the charter and is not looking to pull out of the process.

Calls for changes

"There`s definitely no crisis with regards to issues raised by different ICT sectors; we are very confident that we will find resolutions to recommendations submitted so far to the steering committee," says Mjwara.

"Other than some of the areas of concern raised by the electronics industry, we feel the EIF may have to re-think the idea of adopting the DTI`s code as opposed to the ICT industry`s charter."

Mjwara says a number of industry players, including the broadcasting and electronics sectors, labour representatives and community members, have expressed the view that some areas of concern need to be reviewed.

He says despite these concerns, 95% of the ICT sector has endorsed the ICT charter and supports going forward with the transformation process.

"Today we are meeting the multinationals and will have final presentations by Friday."

Mjwara says there will be few amendments to the charter document, but the steering committee will meet its end of April deadline, before submitting the charter to Cabinet for consideration and approval.