(Subcommittee) ICASA Vacancies: Subcommittee Programme

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the meeting noting it was a subcommittee meeting appointed by the National Assembly. It is permitted that Committees may establish subcommittees to deal with specific matters. The meeting today would consider the programme for filling vacancies on the board of the Independent Communication Authority of SA (ICASA) as a result of resignation and the end of term for other councillors. The Chairperson called for Members to be provided with a recap on the work done so far before the programme was adopted.

Committee Secretary, Mr Thembinkosi Ngoma, presented that the Committee received a letter on15 March 2021 from the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies informing the Speaker of the resignation of Mr Zolani Matthews as a council member with immediate effect. The letter further indicated that Mr Matthews will be released from serving the notice of three months in terms of section 3 of the ICASA Act. In addition to the resignation, there was a term expiry for three councillors – the terms would expire on 20 September 2021, 25 September 2021 and 31 January 2022 respectively. The Minister requested the Speaker initiate recruitment process in terms of section 51 of the ICASA Act. The Committee had met on 2 June 2021; it was then that the letter was tabled by the Chairperson and the Committee resolved the matter of publishing the advert in the media calling for nominations to fill the vacancies. Advertisements closed on the 23 July 2021. The Committee has received 71 nominations.

The summaries of all the candidates CV have been put together and the list will be provided to Members immediately after the meeting. The link will be provided later. The advertisement was sent out through the 11 official languages. Human resources did not consider candidates who did not respond to the advert. Nominations are made by people who respond to the advert. Verification of local qualifications can take three to five days while for international qualifications, can take three to five weeks. The ICASA Act provides that the Committee recommends candidates to fill the vacancies to the Minister. The subcommittee has still to do so. The Committee needs to agree on the number of candidates to be shortlisted for the four vacancies.

The Subcommittees has conducted its business in a transparent, open and confident manner for public participation. The subcommittee always publishes the list of candidates publicly. This is done to strengthen public participation.

Once the subcommittee has conducted interviews, it will compile a report to be sent to the National Assembly. The report will consist of a list of suitable candidates. A total of six candidates will be sent to the Minister, who will then make final appointment of four councillors. Section B of the ICASA Act provides that the subcommittee may invite technical experts to assist in the selection and nomination process of councillors, and the process that happens thereafter. Section 53 of the ICASA Act discusses the disqualification and eligibility requirements for candidates. Candidates will not be considered until the qualification checks and security vetting from the human resources department and State Security Agency have been received. Once the subcommittee has adopted the report, it will be referred to the full Portfolio Committee which will make its recommendation. There will be another report for this.

Discussion

Mr Z Mbhele (DA) expressed he had a misunderstanding of the ICASA process. There was a media statement issued in the Member’s name highlighting his concern about the notice period for the receipt of submissions for the ICASA process. From the previous emails he received, it notified the Members that the ICASA advert would be published on 2 July 2021. His misunderstanding came from a media statement using the Chairperson’s name on 20 July 2020 which made it appear as thought that would be the date by which to receive submissions. It appeared as if only three days were made available for the process. With the confirmation and clarity from the Committee Secretary, he now understood it to be a three week submission window. The 20 July 2021 media statement was instead a reminder of the final stage of submission. He apologised to the Chairperson for the misunderstanding caused.

The Chairperson accepted the apology from Mr Z Mbhele (DA)

Ms N Khubheka (ANC) recommended that the numbers of candidates be revised. She requested the subcommittee to follow the same process as with the SABC and MDDA in filling vacancies. She was aware that this would then be a larger number of candidates and so suggested the process take two days instead of one. She recommended that for each vacancy, the subcommittee shortlists five candidates to interview. She asked that Members be reminded of the skills needed for the vacancies.

Mr Ngoma responded to the matter of the media statement that was issued by the office of the Chairperson on 20 July noting it was a reminder of the closing date being near. The advert was published for 22 days. Five candidates will be interviewed per vacancy so in total, 20 candidates to interview for the four vacancies in the ICASA council. There will be two days for the interviews.

On 31 August 2021 at 20:00, interviews will be held. The time may be adjusted as there will be meetings before the interview. Two days will be needed for the interviews. It is foreseen that the process may run towards the early hours of the morning as opposed to the time set from 18:00 to 22:00. The Committee has considered setting three days aside as the number of candidates may be 20. However, two days have been tabled to the Committee. On 14 September 2021, deliberations on the outcome of interviews will be held, which will commence at 20:00. After deliberation, the outcomes will be tabled to the full Committee where they will decide the way forward.

Mr Mbhele expressed that he affirms and supports the recommendation of shortlisting five candidates per vacancy.

The Chairperson expressed that he recommends the Committee entertain the idea of four candidates to keep stability within the entities. When appointments were made, they were to be noted to the Minister to guard against the collapse of the entity in terms of the different terms of office expiration dates which run between September and February.

Mr Mbhele expressed two concerns on the programme. Firstly, two sessions will likely not be sufficient given there may have a large group of candidates, even if the process ran beyond 22h00. Secondly, on 8 September 2021, there is an oral question session in the House for the cluster under which communications falls. These question sessions often run over time. He recommended the Committee plan for 10 September as an overrun day.

Members accepted the proposal for 10 September 2021.

The programme was adopted.

Meeting was adjourned.