Nominations for ICASA vacancies opened

By Ofentse Mokae
10 March 2010

Parliament’s committee on communications has called on the public to submit nominations for positions at the state-owned communications regulatory body ICASA.

This follows as the term of four ICASA councillors including its chairperson Paris Mashile, comes to an end later this year.

Committee Chairperson, Ismail Vadi, said the positions should be filled in the current parliamentary year, as ICASA fulfills a vital regulatory function in the information, communications and technology sector.

It is reported that to date the committee had only received 19 nominations while in the past it received over 80 nominations for a single vacancy.

The committee says they have recently examined ICASA closely, particularly as it failed to determine interconnection rates for mobile operators.

Candidates for the vacancies should be committed to fairness, freedom of expression and openness and accountability.

Vadi says they should also be representative of a broad cross-section of the population of the country and possess suitable qualifications, expertise and experience in the fields such as electronic communications, public policy development, electronic engineering, law, marketing and journalism amongst others.

The deadline for nominations is at the end of this month, after which a shortlist of candidates will be interviewed by the Committee, and submitted to parliament for approval as well as Communications minister, Siphiwe Nyanda.