South Africa’s long-awaited Convergence Bill will be put to Cabinet in January once issues affecting internet broadcasting have been sorted out in the drafting process of the legislation, Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe Casaburri said on Thursday.
Speaking to journalists after addressing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) annual meeting, the minister said she had planned to put the legislation before Cabinet on Wednesday — December 1 — “but there are still a number of issues that made us [the communications department] not put it before Cabinet yesterday [Wednesday]”.
She said her director general was still “not very happy” that the issue of internet broadcasting had not been fully addressed.
“But the Bill will be ready in January … more than a year later than [intended]. We are learning from experiences of other countries,” said Matsepe-Casaburri.
Last month, communications department Director General Lyndall Shope-Mafole said the Bill would be passed by Parliament next year.
Convergence means carrying all types of communication on one digital network — comprising voice, data, internet and other information and communications technology platforms. – I-Net Bridge