The Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC) of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has brought forward the hearing of the complaint brought by opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) over the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) withdrawal of one of its adverts after the DA said it would submit an urgent High Court application to compel the regulator to hear its complaint without any further delay.
HumanIPO reported earlier today ICASA had postponed from today until Thursday a hearing into the complaint, which centres around the SABC’s removal of the party’s “Ayisafani” advertisement, in which the DA claims the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is “corrupt” and “for the connected few”, and shows images of President Zuma’s Nkandla estate, police brutality and unemployed South Africans.
The DA agreed to the delay, but only under the condition ICASA could offer a commitment it would reach a decision by 5pm on Thursday, given regulations require ICASA to give a decision within 48 hours of a complaint being made.
“Late last night ICASA replied to us to say that they could not provide this commitment,” DA leader Helen Zille said in a statement.
“This is completely unacceptable to the DA. We will today approach the Gauteng South High Court seeking an urgent order to compel ICASA to hear the matter, and to reach a decision on the matter, without any further delay.”
Zille said ICASA had not fulfilled its regulatory and constitutional obligations with regards to the handling of the complaint, and had given the “unavoidable impression” it was trying to deliberately delay dealing with the complaint to boost the ANC’s election chances.
However, ICASA has now announced the public hearing has been brought back forward to today, and will be held at 6pm at the ICASA head office in Johannesburg.
ICASA said its referral of the complaint to the CCC had always been made on an “urgent” basis, and as such the regulator did not contravene the 48-hour deadline.
“The Authority would like to make it clear that in referring the matter to the CCC on an urgent basis, it acted within the 48-hours timelines as required by the Elections Regulations,” ICASA said.
The public hearing was brought forward “due to the urgency of this matter and the Authority’s commitment to expediting the resolution of this complaint,” ICASA said.
(Additional reporting by Tom Jackson)
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