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Minister oversteps her authority2008-03-17 Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has come under fire from legal experts who say she overstepped her powers COMMUNICATIONS Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has come under fire from legal experts who say she recently overstepped her powers by issuing guidelines on undersea cables which allegedly usurp the role of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa). The guidelines issued by Matsepe-Casaburri will, if made final in their current form, contravene her own department’s legislation, the Electronic Communications Act of 2005. This usurps the licensing role of Icasa, the regulator expressly authorised to issue licences, said Kathleen Rice, a communications law attorney at law firm Werksmans Attorneys, at the weekend. “The proposed ministerial authorisations are, in effect, licences. The licensing role lies squarely with Icasa and not the minister,” Rice said. The communications department published the proposed guidelines for Rapid Deployment of Electronic Communications Facilities in the Government Gazette of February 27. The proposed guidelines say that any international cable, cable landing station or international submarine cable systems may be landed or operated in SA only with written authorisation issued by the communications minister. To qualify for an authorisation, an applicant must be an individual electronic communication network service licensee registered in SA. SA entities must own at least 51% of the international submarine cable either outright or jointly with other African entities as may be authorised by the minister. Rice said: “These are not so much guidelines as licence application procedures. The granting of licences is Icasa’s legislated function.” Icasa was supposed to be an independent licensing body but the proposals call that independence into question, she said. “The African and SA ownership requirements will delay matters and not facilitate rapid deployment,” she said. “There are offshore companies able to operate almost immediately on their own.” This contradicts the stated purpose of “rapid deployment”, Rice said. She said the minister had overstepped her powers. Source: My Broadband |
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