Political party differences over the appointment and performance management of Independent Communication Authority of SA (ICASA) councillors are small and should be resolved by Wednesday next week, says Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications acting chairman Godfrey Olifant (ANC).
"I am confident the differences, particularly between the DA and ANC members on this committee, are quite small, but need some massaging to get to a final conclusion," Olifant told ITWeb.
The committee met today to discuss president Thabo Mbeki`s reasons for not signing the ICASA Amendment Bill, which has also held up the implementation of the Electronic Communications Act.
The president`s objections focus on sections seven, nine and 11 of the ICASA Amendment Bill, which deal with the appointment of a panel of experts by the minister of communications, which will in turn appoint ICASA councillors. These sections also deal with a performance management system for ICASA councillors.
Paul Swart (DA) proposed the committee first deal with the issue of the appointment of the councillors and then tackle the performance management system some other time, until guidelines from the public service commission are received.
"The issue of appointing the councillors should remain with Parliament, which will then give their decisions to the president, who will then appoint them," he says.
No strict guideline
Ruben Mohlaloga (ANC) says there is no strict guideline within the Constitution to appoint ICASA councillors, and he feels a panel would not necessarily affect ICASA`s independence.
The real issue in Mbeki`s letter to Parliament is that ICASA now incorporates the former Independent Broadcasting Authority and there are historical reasons for this function to be independent.
Department of Communications director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole says her department`s recommendation that a panel be appointed to select ICASA councillors was part of a mandate given by Cabinet, and that only in SA does the national assembly appoint communication regulators.
"We acknowledge that there is an historical reason for appointing independent councillors; however, this has to do with apartheid, and we have now moved on 11 years from that," she says.
Dene Smuts (DA) says Parliament chooses, and Parliament votes, and then the president signs. "There is no role for the minister in choosing councillors; let`s put the president back where he belongs - ie finding the appointment of the councillors on the recommendations of Parliament."
Khotso Khumalo (ANC) countered this by saying that in some other statutory bodies such as the justice commission, the responsible minister sits on the selection panel, and that there are many variations to how this could be done.
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