Telecommunications industry body the Association for Comms & Technology (ACT) has called for greater transparency of equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs) should sector regulator Icasa choose to implement last week’s ministerial policy directive on black economic empowerment.
Speaking to TechCentral on Wednesday, ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi said EEIPs in other sectors lack transparency, with big investments often touted by multinationals without any clarity into how the funds are spent or how effective the programmes are.
“As ACT, we don’t have an issue with the minister’s policy directive. Actually, he has taken most of our concerns around regulatory parity into account. Our main concern is around Icasa’s implementation of it. Icasa is a creature of statute, and the devil is in the ‘how’. How will it work in practice?” she said.
On regularity parity, ACT – whose members are Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Cell C and Rain – has said multinationals using EEIPs should adhere to the same licensing and spectrum fee structure, make similar contributions to the Universal Service and Access Fund and have similar obligations regarding universal access.
Batyi said Icasa’s approach to EEIPs could create parity on paper between newcomers like Starlink and incumbents but that inconsistent monitoring risks unfairness and regulatory uncertainty.
“Within Icasa’s licensing regime, if an entity falls short of reaching its target, we all know that they have. When it comes to EEIPs, even in the mining sector, for example, I have never heard of any company falling short of reaching its target and who is responsible for monitoring that. There hasn’t been any transparency,” said Batyi.
Independent body
Batyi referred to a parliamentary communications portfolio committee meeting in October where the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission explained that as a volunteer-based organisation, it did not have the resources to monitor and enforce its mandate as an oversight body for EEIPs.
A spokewoman for the committee argued that the legislated model for funding the organisation is broken because it forces the commission to “go begging for funding” from the very multinationals it is meant to police. “They don’t have monitoring mechanisms and there are no audits that are done,” Batyi told TechCentral.
Read: ANC’s attack on Solly Malatsi shows how BEE dogma trumps economic reality
Other bodies responsible for monitoring and evaluation of EEIPs are the B-BEE ICT Sector Council and the department of trade, industry & competition. Asked whether Icasa should consider taking on the oversight responsibility of EEIPs, Batyi said it would not be fair to expect the communications regulator to shoulder that responsibility because EEIPs are not part of the Icasa Act.
“The B-BEE ICT Sector Council is supposed to come up with a report on an annual basis to say who is doing what and to what extent that is working – I have never seen such a report since the council has been in existence,” said Batyi.
The policy directive from Malatsi, a senior member of the DA, was met with uproar from his ANC counterparts in government. The ANC issued a statement accusing the minister of “exceeding his legislative authority, undermining South Africa’s transformation framework and threatening the integrity of our ICT and postal regulatory environment”.
Batyi emphasised that the minister is within his rights to issue policy directives, adding that his approach of taking input from industry and addressing its concerns is welcome. She also noted, however, that Icasa in an independent statutory body that is not bound by the minister’s directive. So, while Icasa must consider Malatsi’s directive, it is not obliged to implement it. Should Icasa choose to take the policy changes forward, Batyi predicted it will be some time before the regulations are amended.
Read: Political war erupts over BEE in the ICT sector
“These processes are not immediate. We saw how long it took the minister (seven months) to finalise the directive,” said Batyi. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Sign up here.
