STAATSKOERANT, 24 JANUARIE 2014
No. 37261
The lack of development of an all-encompassing national strategy to guide the deployment
and adoption of modern communications technologies in the country has been blamed for
the poor performance in all tracked indicators. As indicated earlier, the Draft Broadband
Policy identified the stimulation of demand for broadband services as important for the
successful roll-out of broadband services. The Draft envisages government playing the role
of service aggregator to acquire and procure services, network capacity, content and
applications for the public sector. The demand-side measures will also see government
connecting all government offices and providing a portal for interacting with the public.
The second sphere of government responsibility is the use of modern communications tools
to deliver services in the most efficient manner possible. There are skills and resources
shortages that make the delivery of services using communications means not only cost
effective but the most efficient, taking into consideration the developmental stage of the
South African public service. Experience from other countries that have succeeded
demonstrates that only a well-coordinated and planned introduction of e-government
strategies can overcome initial obstacles and lead to successful implementation. Initiating
pilots, evaluating the results and rolling out of large-scale projects requires project
management skills such as were deployed during the preparations for the 2010 World Cup.
A clear institutional arrangement must be developed within government to enable
information sharing on planned projects, the establishment of teams that can jointly plan to
develop common networks, platforms and applications, and joint funding of these activities.
12.3 The Roles of the Regulatory Agencies
12.3.1 The Role of the Independent Communications Authority
ICASA was established as an independent communications authority regulating the
telecommunications and broadcasting sectors by the ICASA Act 2000 in line with section
192 of the Constitution. Section 192 provides for the establishment of an independent
regulatory authority to regulate broadcasting in the public interest and to ensure fairness and
diversity of views broadly representative of the South African society. The Postal regulator
was merged with ICASA in 2006 to provide for the regulation of the postal sector.
ICASA derives its mandate and operations from the ICASA Act of 2000, the Electronic
Communications Act of 2005, the Broadcasting Act of 1999 and the Postal Act of 2006. As a
public entity, ICASA is subject to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the
Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA).
Research indicates that the cost to communicate in South Africa remains high even though
the regulation of the sector to provide reasonable prices for services is one of the key
objectives of policy and statutes. The competition framework outlined in section 10 of the
Electronic Communications Act was introduced to give power to the regulator to intervene in
situations where significant market power was evident, resulting in high prices and
dominance abuse. The determination of markets and the outline of pro-competitive
measures in situations where there is no effective competition are provisions contained in
law but they have not been implemented in the past seven years.
ICASA has taken action to lower the termination rate mobile operators pay to each other for
the termination of calls and identified the need for intervention in the digital broadcasting
signal wholesale distribution market to ensure fair pricing.
Under current legislation the Minister is also empowered to issue, from time to time, policy
directives to the Independent Communications Authority regarding any matter the Minister
feels ICASA must consider and act upon in the implementation of the law. These directives
are an important instrument enabling government and ICASA to respond to technical and
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