1. Portfolio Committee on Communications
Overview on Matters Before the Committee as at August, 2016

2. CONTENTS STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS BILLS OVERSIGHT VISITS
PCC STRATEGIC PLAN & APP GOALS

3. STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS
The Committee has a statutory requirement to recommend candidates for appointment to the Board Council of:
ICASA Council
MDDA Board; and
SABC Board

4. STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS
ICASA Council
The National Assembly recommends persons for appointment to ICASA Council as per section 5 of ICASA Act 13 of 2000, as amended.
ICASA Council consists of 9 Council members. Currently there are 7 Councillors and the Committee is in the process of appointing the other two Councillors.
Secretariat (Mr Ngoma) will elaborate on this matter.

5. STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS
MDDA Board
According to section 4 of the MDDA Act, the Board of MDDA consists of 9 members. Six members of the Board are appointed by the President of the Republic of South Africa on the recommendation of the National Assembly. The other three members are appointed by the President of whom one must be from commercial print media and another from commercial broadcast media.
Currently there is one vacancies in the MDDA Board. Mr Thamsanqa Ntenteni was recommended for appointment to the MDDA Board in June 2015 and was subsequently appointed by the President in the same month. However, it transpired that Mr Ntenteni had a criminal record that disqualified him from being appointed to the MDDA Board. The process of removing Mr Ntenteni from the Board is currently underway and the Committee awaits a legal opinion from Parliamentary Legal and Constitutional Development on how to best proceed with the removal.
Mr Jabulani Bloce’s term ended in (June) and the matter has been forwarded to the Committee for appointment of a replacement

6. STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS
SABC Board
The SABC Board consists of 12 non-executive members appointed by the President of the Republic of South Africa on the advice of the National Assembly, and three executive members (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer). In total, the SABC Board consists of 15 members.
Currently there are three vacancies in the SABC Board that has been referred to the Committee. The Committee had advertised the call for persons to be nominated to fill the three vacancies in 2015 . The Committee was not satisfied with the persons nominated and resolved to restart the process.
Secretariat (Mr Ngoma) will elaborate on this matter

7. STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS
BILLS
FILMS AND PUBLICATIONS AMENDMENT BILL
The Committee received briefings on the Bill in March The Committee advertised a call for public comment and the closing date was extended to 26 May 2016.
A total of 32 submissions were officially received by the Secretariat.
The Committee shall endeavour to conduct public hearings from 30 August 2016 to 01 September 2016.
Deliberations on this Bill are set to be conducted on the September 2016.

8. STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS
BILLS
BROADCASTING AMENDMENT BILL
The Committee received briefings on the Bill in March The Department and the Parliamentary Legal and Constitutional Development made further presentations on the Bill on whether it has met all the constitutional requirements of law making and on whether the Bill was sub judice as there is a matter before courts between the Minister of Communications and others in relation to the removal of certain Board members.
The Committee debated to satisfactory following opinions as presented by (i) Parliamentary Legal Services; (ii) the Department; and (iii) the State Law Adviser.

9. OVERSIGHT VISITS
The Committee last undertook on an official oversight programme in 2015.
The forthcoming public hearings should be viewed in the context of the Committtees’ oversight programme; however
The Committee should embark on an oversight programme independent of the public hearings in order to
Adhere to the Strategic Plan and APP of the PCC
To continue to benchmark reporting the Department based on first-hand evidenced as witnessed by the Committee during oversights
Based on the fact that the PCC did not conduct an oversight due to a tight parliamentary programme, it is imperative that the Committee during the Fourth (4th) Term, undertakes at-least one oversight visit in order to adhere to its constitutional mandate

10. PCC STRATEGIC PLAN & APP GOALS
The Committee has not adopted an APP for the 2016/17 financial years
The Secretariat is currently finalizing the revisions of the APP
These will be circulated to members for further review with the hope that the Committee’s Fourth (4th) Term programme will dedicate time to finalizing the APP for this financial year.