92 No. 37261 GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24 JANUARY 2014 The ICASA Act of 2000 provides for the appointment of the Council of the regulator by the Minister on the advice of the National Assembly. The Broadcasting Act of 1999 provides for the appointment of the Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation by the President. In this role, Parliament manages the appointment process and makes recommendations to the President. The Broadcasting White Paper of 1998 dealt extensively with the different roles that Parliament should play in accordance with the Constitutional provisions. Both the Telecommunications and the Postal White Papers provided for Parliament to undertake legislative activities arising out of the policy processes. The Information and Communications sector is now recognised as an important enabler across various spheres of social and economic activities. The draft Broadband Policy envisages a national strategy to promote the use of broadband technologies in the educational, health, social security, environmental, police and other sectors. E-Government as part of the Broadband Plan will deliver through electronic services the activities that are governed and regulated by the sector-specific agencies. The draft plan identifies the need for effective coordination and alignment between the agencies responsible for the ICT sector and those who will be responsible for delivering e-services. As an example, e-health services must conform to health standards and communications standards. This will require collaboration between the ICASA and the equivalent regulatory body in health services. This raises questions about how Parliament will oversee the planning and implementation of ICT systems that affect a cross-section of Portfolio and Select Committees. The current system of Parliament entails Portfolio Committees organised on a sector basis, whereas in the future differently structured committees may be required to deal with the new electronic and online services that will be offered in addition to the current offline services. 12.2.2 The role of government The Constitution vests government with executive powers to run the affairs of the country. Government, through Cabinet, develops national policies whose major principles are captured in draft Bills for submission to Parliament. Government accounts to Parliament for the implementation of the responsibilities assigned to it by Parliament and law. Government also oversees the functioning of public entities and the provision of public services. The Minister of Communications is charged with shareholder responsibility on behalf of government in all State Owned Entities in the communications sector. But the Minister of Public Enterprise exercises this function in the case of Broadband Infraco. The Minister of Communications is responsible for political oversight of the Department of Communications on behalf of Cabinet. Section 3 of the Electronic Communications Act empowers the Minister to make Ministerial and Policy directives on matters of national policy applicable to the ICT sector and in line with related legislation. There are several areas in which the Minister may make policy directives, including radio frequency spectrum, universal service and access policy, and the application of new technologies. Since the last White Paper was drafted 15 years ago, there has not been any formal policy and market reviews despite an early identification in the white papers that technological changes were going to affect the provision of telecommunications, broadcasting and postal services in a fundamental way. Many laws have instead been drafted and passed by Parliament in an ad-hoc way. 88 This gazette is also available free online at www.gpwonline.co.za