OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday
SOUTH African government delays in issuing a comprehensive policy framework on the liberalisation of the telecommunications market are hampering efforts by the industry’s regulator Icasa to restore investor confidence, Mandla Langa, the chairman of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), said this week.
To this end, Icasa has moved tentatively to tackle some issues dogging the sector, with the adoption of industry standards through an agreement with the SA Bureau of Standards, MTN and Vodacom’s big spectrum debate, and a pledge to curb Telkom’s pricing stranglehold.
“When there are delays on the part of government with a piece of legislation it means that our job as a regulator becomes so much harder, especially, when we come from a past performance that is riddled with problems. It just means it takes longer for us to get rid of that pale brush that is tainting all of us because we are stuck with legislation we can do little with,” he said.
However, the telecommunications regulator is itself struggling to rejuvenate credibility as it battles growing pains and staff unhappiness about a mooted restructuring plan which may result in job cuts in the first three to five months of next year.
The amalgamation of the former Independent Broadcasting Authority of SA and the discredited SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of SA (Satra) to form Icasa has also seen duplicated functions in support services such as finance and human resources – resulting in some managers being unsure of their futures.
Langa, however, is optimistic that the appointment of former water and land affairs deputy director general, Nkateko Nyoka, as CEO would go some way to bringing clarity to the restructuring. Nyoka, a former activist and lawyer who worked as a managing secretary for a committee of the Constitutional Assembly after the 1994 elections, will start his duties on January next year.
Langa has also been looking to government to provide clearer answers on what the exact mandate of his body will be and which market environment it will be operating in.
A policy framework will set in motion the opening up of competition and the second national operator (SNO) and will also provide direction for Icasa, which has complained that it has been forced to work in a vacuum since its inception in July.
Langa has also been looking to government to provide clearer answers on what the exact mandate of his body will be and which market environment it will be operating in.
Langa is hoping this will come when in March when Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is expected to outline government’s policy stance and regulatory framework on telecommunications after a long silence and mixed messages which has dumped the sector into uncertainty and led to waves of speculation.
“We will be keeping our eyes and ears open for what the minister has to say and deal with whatever comes our way,” Langa said.