A report published in Business Day on Friday concerning state-owned Broadband Infraco was “misleading” and “factually incorrect”, government said.

The newspaper reported that cabinet was forcing the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to grant a second licence to Infraco.

Business Day also reported that Icasa had last week refused to issue an electronic communication network service licence to Infraco to enable it to provide Internet and other data services.

“I wish to clarify that this is not an accurate reflection of what was contained in the cabinet statement,” said government spokesman Themba Maseko.

The statement issued on Thursday stated unequivocally that cabinet had approved the amendment of the policy direction to Icasa to establish a licensing framework for Infraco, he said.

The original policy direction to Icasa had been issued in terms of section 4(1) of the Broadband Infraco Act instead of section 3(10) (A) of the Electronic Communications Act (36 of 2005).

“The direction will enable Icasa to accept and consider Infraco’s licensing application to provide electronic communications network services,” Maseko said.

“In response to a question, I stated categorically that this was a technical correction to ensure that the direction that had been issued to Icasa previously was issued in terms of the correct legislation,” he said. — Sapa