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No. 37261
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24 JANUARY 2014
The ICASA Act of 2000 provides for the appointment of the Council of the regulator by the
Minister on the advice of the National Assembly. The Broadcasting Act of 1999 provides for
the appointment of the Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation by the
President. In this role, Parliament manages the appointment process and makes
recommendations to the President.
The Broadcasting White Paper of 1998 dealt extensively with the different roles that
Parliament should play in accordance with the Constitutional provisions. Both the
Telecommunications and the Postal White Papers provided for Parliament to undertake
legislative activities arising out of the policy processes.
The Information and Communications sector is now recognised as an important enabler
across various spheres of social and economic activities. The draft Broadband Policy
envisages a national strategy to promote the use of broadband technologies in the
educational, health, social security, environmental, police and other sectors.
E-Government as part of the Broadband Plan will deliver through electronic services the
activities that are governed and regulated by the sector-specific agencies. The draft plan
identifies the need for effective coordination and alignment between the agencies
responsible for the ICT sector and those who will be responsible for delivering e-services. As
an example, e-health services must conform to health standards and communications
standards. This will require collaboration between the ICASA and the equivalent regulatory
body in health services. This raises questions about how Parliament will oversee the
planning and implementation of ICT systems that affect a cross-section of Portfolio and
Select Committees. The current system of Parliament entails Portfolio Committees
organised on a sector basis, whereas in the future differently structured committees may be
required to deal with the new electronic and online services that will be offered in addition to
the current offline services.
12.2.2 The role of government
The Constitution vests government with executive powers to run the affairs of the country.
Government, through Cabinet, develops national policies whose major principles are
captured in draft Bills for submission to Parliament. Government accounts to Parliament for
the implementation of the responsibilities assigned to it by Parliament and law. Government
also oversees the functioning of public entities and the provision of public services. The
Minister of Communications is charged with shareholder responsibility on behalf of
government in all State Owned Entities in the communications sector. But the Minister of
Public Enterprise exercises this function in the case of Broadband Infraco. The Minister of
Communications is responsible for political oversight of the Department of Communications
on behalf of Cabinet.
Section 3 of the Electronic Communications Act empowers the Minister to make Ministerial
and Policy directives on matters of national policy applicable to the ICT sector and in line
with related legislation. There are several areas in which the Minister may make policy
directives, including radio frequency spectrum, universal service and access policy, and the
application of new technologies.
Since the last White Paper was drafted 15 years ago, there has not been any formal policy
and market reviews despite an early identification in the white papers that technological
changes were going to affect the provision of telecommunications, broadcasting and postal
services in a fundamental way. Many laws have instead been drafted and passed by
Parliament in an ad-hoc way.
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