Parliament roasts ICASA nominees

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Cape Town, 30 Aug 2006

The second day of interviews for the vacant Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) councillor posts saw six nominees taking a roasting from members of Parliament.

Applying for a second term as councillor, Mamodupi Mohlala, who had stirred some controversy by moonlighting as a director of an IT company, said this activity would now stop under the Electronics Communications Act.

Mashila Matlala, a Department of Communications official, was questioned by Dene Smuts, Paul Swart (DA) and Suzanne Vos (IFP), as well as the committee`s acting chairman Godfrey Oliphant (ANC), on what she understood by the word "independence" as applied to ICASA. They asked her what she would do, if as a councillor, she had to react to a difference of opinion between the minister of communications and the council.

Matlala`s response was: "My definition of independence is that ICASA has the means and ability to carry out what it should do, otherwise it is not independent... My nature, as a person, is to follow my tasks to the nth degree and I have a strong respect for authority... I have no problem with how the constitution defines ICASA."

Randy Pieterse (ANC) asked Matlala about the problems with the underserviced area licensees (USALs): "Why was no research done into the problems hampering the roll-out of the first licensees, and yet the department decided to go ahead and issue another 14?"

Matlala stated that the USALs are being licensed in three phases to allow each phase to be finalised. The politicians also asked Matlala questions about her independence of thought and she replied that she "would do whatever tasks the [ICASA] council set her".

The other nominees were: Kobus van Rooyen, a former chairman of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA; Aubrey Nkomo, a retired ambassador; Mbulelo Ncetezo, a former ICASA councillor and until recently, head of regulatory affairs at WBS iBurst; Lee-Ann Cassie, ICASA`s manager of telecommunications enforcement; Marcia Socikwa, an academic; Nandipha Gila, head of radio and TV educational content at the SABC; and Debbie Love, a master`s degree student and consumer activist.