Our friendly neighborhood communications regulator ICASA is saying goodbye to four of its seven councillors as their terms of service all end before the 1st of November this year. It will leave the committee in charge of steering the organisation with just five members until new councillors are appointed.

Councillors William Stucke, William Currie, Joseph Lebooa and Miki Ndhlovu are all on their way out of ICASA. Proceedings to find new councillors, which must be undertaken by Parliament and in particular the Department of Communications, is yet to begin.

According to a report by TechCentral, telecommunications lawyer and consultant Kerron Edmunson, who was speaking at an event yesterday morning, stated that the four were asked to leave with immediate effect by communications minister Faith Muthambi without asking them to stay for the usual 45-day handover period, something usually given to allow for their replacements to be appointed.

“The minister of the department of communications has told them to leave — no need for a handover,” Edmunson said. “The minister would like to change the number of councillors from nine to five. The CEO [Pakamile Pongwana] might gain a vote on the council, which hasn’t been the case before. It looks like we might have a new-looking ICASA by the end of the year.”

However in a contradicting statement issued by ICASA today, the regulator said that “the Minister, last week requested Councillors whose terms of office are ending to complete their handover and wrap-up their activities a month after the end of their terms of office.”

Far be it for the department of communications to ever be a confusing place, having been split in two the last time there was a governmental shake-up, however the end of the tenure of the likes of the four vastly knowlegable councillors (in our experiencewith them at least) who are leaving the regulator shouldn’t be taken lightly as there will most certainly be a change in the way that it handles its mandate in the future.