A special report by a committee to the National Assembly which reviewed the functioning of the Chapter 9 institutions last year looked at the independence of ICASA.
Chapter 9 institutions are all institutions listed in Chapter 9 of the Constitution, and are institutions which are important to the functioning of democracy.
The committee who drafted the report rejected an argument that the communications authority should not be independent but instead found important constitutional reasons for an independent communications authority.
The convergence of technology requires that there be a single independent regulator of communications, both to ensure freedom of expression, and that communications is regulated so as to boost the economy.
The Report contains a number of recommendations on how the Independent Communications Authority should be constituted:
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the President should appoint Councillors on the recommendation of the National Assembly,
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at least a third of the Councillors should be technically qualified so that the Authority does not need to rely on technical advisor’s,
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performance should be measured by the National Assembly and not the Minister of Communications,
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the Authority’s funding should by a hybrid model of regulatory and market-activity-based fees,
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mandatory disclosure of interests of Councillor’s and officials.
The Report also contains recommendations in Chapter 2 about the independence, especially governance, funding and reporting of all the Chapter 9 institutions. The Report recommends that most of these aspects be standardised for the Chapter 9 institutions. The report sees little sense in treating Chapter 9 institutions differently from one another except where their functions clearly demand it. The recommendations in the Report would increase ICASA’s independence considerably.
