OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 2.00pm.
LEGISLATORS said on Friday they expect to move quickly on the formation of a new telecommunications and broadcasting regulator to replace the existing often criticised organisations.
President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday signed into law an act allowing for the creation of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), which will merge and replace the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra).
”We hope to move pretty quickly on appointing councillors for Icasa, although it’s difficult to give an exact timeframe,” Brian Sokutu, the telecommunications ministry spokesman said when asked if the body would be formed in weeks or months.
The IBA, formed in 1994, oversaw the award in 1998 of South Africa’s first free-to-air television channel, which went to Time Warner backed consortium Midi TV, but not without some controversy. Satra, created in 1996, is in the process of selecting the winning bidder for the country’s third cellular licence, a decision dogged by legal wranglings among bidders and Satra, as well as investigations of the regulator’s probity.
While the new merged body was conceived of more than a year ago as a means of streamlining the regulatory framework as broadcasting and telecommunications increasingly overlap, its creation is also designed to reassure operators who have questioned the clarity of South Africa’s regulatory bodies. The winner of the third cellular licence, which was supposed to have been awarded in July last year, is still expected to be announced by Satra — possibly in the next week — but if Icasa is formed sooner, then it could take over the decision.
”We cannot guarantee at this stage that Icasa won’t be formed before Satra makes its final decision,” said Sokutu, leaving open the possibility that Satra’s choice for the third licencee could be superceded by Icasa. — Reuters