South Africa’s much-awaited Convergence Bill has been given the nod “in principle” for its submission to Parliament by the South African Cabinet, according to government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe.
However, the Bill is unlikely to be tabled in Parliament for a while as it must still go through checks by state law advisers.
While the National Assembly portfolio committee chairperson on communications, Mpho Lekgoro, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, it is understood that the Bill will only come before this committee in the second term — after the Easter break.
Netshitenzhe said in a statement that the Cabinet — which met last week — had considered the Bill, which deals “with regulatory matters pertaining to converging telecommunications, broadcasting and the IT [information technology] industries”.
Convergence means carrying all types of communication on one digital network — comprising voice, data, internet and other information and communications technology platforms.
Late last year, Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said she had planned to put the legislation before Cabinet early in December — “but there are still a number of issues that made us [her department] not put it before Cabinet [at that point]”.
She said at the time that 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.
Director General of Communications Lyndall Shope-Mafole was earlier reported as saying that the Bill will be passed by Parliament in 2005. — I-Net Bridge