[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has placed its CEO, Pakamile Pongwana, on “precautionary suspension”, it said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
Pongwana, who has been CEO of the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal regulator since November 2013, will now face an internal disciplinary hearing, it said.
Chief operations officer Willington Ngwepe will act as CEO until such time that “internal processes” have been concluded.
Before joining Icasa, Pongwana was managing executive for regulatory affairs at Vodacom, a role he held for eight years. He is also a previous deputy director-general for telecoms policy at the department of communications.
Icasa did not provide the reasons for the precautionary suspension. Neither Pongwana nor Ngwepe could immediately be reached on their mobile phones for comment, while Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka said it is an “internal matter” and declined to comment on the reasons for the suspension. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media