ICASA
The Department of Communications (DOC) will make amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, which will give the regulator more tools to deal with its industries. DOC director-general Mamodupi Mohlala says the aspects of the legislation that deal specifically with the cost of communication in SA will be the first to be fine-tuned, followed by those that limit the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) from speedily carrying out its tasks.
ICASA fights for independence
The embattled Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) fought a rearguard action on what its chairperson, Paris Mashile, took to be an attack on the authority's independence in Parliament yesterday. Towards the end of a grueling session, in which ICASA presented its annual report to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, the line between oversight and micromanagement became blurred for all parties, when the issues of overseas trips and performance management systems came up.
I'm all for the Independence of ICASA, they must be able to independently regulate, but that said, I am also all for performance management. That management need not come from within government, but it should be done somewhere. Maybe independent companies can do the evaluations? In fact performance management at all levels in SA would be a fantastic thing!
