The draft of the Convergence Bill is anything but the kind of law South Africa needs. Apart from inviting bureaucratic corruption, it specifies unnecessary licensing and price controls that are the opposite of “enabling” – which is what the legislation is supposed to be.

In July of last year, the information and communications technology (ICT) industry was invited to a colloquium organised by the department of communication to discuss the failure of old laws to address new technologies.

Part of the problem was dealing with the fact – legislatively speaking – that data content was no longer tied to a particular technology. For example, radio broadcasting historically meant using radio-frequency technology, but these days radio can easily be broadcast via the world wide web. A “convergence” law would attempt to reconcile the various Acts of parliament (the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and its amendment of 2001, the Broadcasting Act of 1999, and the Icasa Act of 2000) to create a more flexible regime.