Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) pays tribute to the late Zwelakhe Sisulu

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) joins scores of countrymen and women in paying tribute to the late Zwelakhe Sisulu.

The Authority's leadership and its employees noted with shock the untimely passing of Zwelakhe Sisulu. ICASA interacted and engaged with Zwelakhe Sisulu countless times in its regulatory and licensing processes.

The Authority is, indeed left poorer, by his passing on. As an institution we have benefitted immensely from the submissions he made to the Authority on a range of broadcasting regulatory issues and the engagement we had with him.

Mr Sisulu's input into broadcasting regulatory processes was not unexpected at all. He played a critical role in the constitutional transition period of the early 1990's when the country was transforming a number of public institutions from state-controlled to public entities.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation was one such institution. The role of the SABC in ensuring the country's first democratic general elections featured prominently during the Constitutional Negotiations of the 1990's.

Negotiators and commentators alike, agreed at the time that the transformation of the SABC from a state into a public broadcasters was intricately linked with the birth of a new democratic dispensation.

The country's first democratic general elections needed a public broadcasting corporation that was going to play an informative and educative role through its bouquet of news and current affairs programmes, and to do so impartially, free and fair from undue influence.

It was also in this context that a regulatory authority for the broadcasting, and later the electronic communications was established, to level the general elections "playing field" by licensing new broadcasting players and regulating and monitoring all political advertisements and election broadcasts.

The establishment of the SABC as a public broadcaster and a regulatory authority for the broadcasting sector came to play a midwifery role in the birth of a new democratic and constitutional dispensation for the country.

Zwelakhe Sisulu was appointed as the SABC's first black Group Chief Executive a few months before the April 27 1994 General Elections. Under his guidance and tutelage, the corporation beamed video images and audio broadcasts to millions of households in South Africa, and across the world.

The impact of the SABC’s role during that historic poll, not only remains etched in the minds of millions of radio and television audiences, but will remain a subject of inquiry for students of history as well.

This is the legacy of Zwelake Sisulu for the country, and for the broadcasting sector. The Authority will forever cherish the immense and indelible contribution he made to this end.

May his soul rest in peace. From the leadership and employees of ICASA.