Chairperson and hon members, the Portfolio Committee on Communications received the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Amendment Bill with some changes from the NCOP.
The committee met and considered the change in terms of clause 6, which originally provided that the power to appoint an acting chairperson should lie with the chairperson of Icasa. Accordingly, we accepted the amendment by the NCOP, namely that it should not be the responsibility of the chairperson, but the collective responsibility of the councillors who are available at the time, to appoint the acting chairperson.
Secondly, in terms of clause 9, we accepted that we should write our legislation in simple language. Instead of saying that the quorum would be formed by the councillors in office at the time, to simplify it we say that the quorum should be formed by the councillors who are appointed and serving as councillors at that time.
I must also note that, despite the objection by the DA originally when we were dealing with the Bill, when the amendments from the NCOP were accepted it was noted that the DA this time around fully supported the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Amendment Bill, as amended by the