Pretoria – The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has published the Findings Document and Position Paper following an inquiry into the role and responsibilities of the Authority in cybersecurity. The Findings Document and Position Paper are a culmination of a consultative process involving all relevant and interested stakeholders where written submissions and oral representations were made to ICASA for consideration.

During this process, ICASA received thirteen (13) written submissions in relation to the Discussion Document, seven (7) of which indicated their intention to make oral submissions, which the Authority granted.

The Authority found that there are several legislative processes that are underway such as the Cybercrime and Critical Infrastructure Bills which relate to some aspects of cybersecurity and might affect how this is dealt with in future. However, ICASA is of the view that there is a provision in the Electronic Communications Act that is sufficient enough and empowers the Authority to play a role in the cybersecurity space even though it is only limited to network reliability and information security.

Among other things, ICASA found that there is a need to collaborate with public and private sector organisations; and in collaborating with these organisations, the Authority may assume different levels of responsibilities in those collaborations.

Based on submissions, ICASA believes that regulating a safe cyberspace is of public interest and as such, it is the duty of the state and its agencies to ensure that South Africans are safe on the cyberspace. The overall position of ICASA is that cybersecurity is a multi-facet concept and a multi-stakeholder approach; therefore enabling legislation is required to clarify roles and avoid duplication of resources.

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Paseka Maleka

012 568 3455

079 509 0702

pmaleka@icasa.org.za