Johannesburg - Former Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) chief Lumko Mtimde has missed the cut to be picked as a councillor at the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi yesterday recommended four candidates to Parliament to serve on the Icasa board, including its former chairman Paris Mashile.
Muthambi asked Parliament to endorse Mashile, frequency spectrum specialist Peter Zimri, former Icasa researcher Botlenyana Mokhele and Keabatswe Modimoeng as the new board members at the telecoms regulator.
The four recommended candidates would fill the vacancies created after the departure of William Currie, Joseph Leboa, William Stucke and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu who left the authority in 2014.
Mtimde was one of the frontrunners to be selected on the shortlist of seven names sent to Muthambi by Parliament in November.
Speaker Baleka Mbete yesterday sent the list of four names recommended by Muthambi to the portfolio committee on communications for consideration.
The committee will discuss the matter on February 16 before it sends it to the full sitting of Parliament for approval.
Besides Mtimde, other candidates who failed to make the cut on the list sent to the communications minister in November include Dimakatso Qocha and Yengwayo Kutta.
Mashile and Zimri are not new at the communications regulator as they have served the authority in the past.
Mashile was Icasa chairman between 2005 and 2010 when his term expired. He was replaced by Stephen Mncube, whose term also expired last June.
Zimri was at the telecoms regulator between 2002 and 2004.
During his tenure Zimri served as the senior manager for spectrum. At the same time, Mokhele was a researcher at the regulator.
The submission of the four names by Muthambi to Parliament comes after a rigorous interviewing and selection process last year.
The four candidates pipped 12 other people who were shortlisted by the portfolio committee on communications in May before the committee trimmed the list down to seven.
On that list Mashile and Zimri emerged as the two candidates with a history with the authority.
The four top candidates picked by Muthambi came from a shortlist of seven names in Parliament in November.
Icasa has been operating without the full complement of nine full-time councillors.
Parliament will now finalise the process of picking the last four names.
The National Assembly is expected to approve the names once the portfolio committee has given its backing to the four names.
BUSINESS REPORT