[WSIS CS-Plenary] [WSIS THETHA] ICT Charter Roadshow Invitation for Polokwane

[Sangonet]

FW: ICT Charter Roadshow Invitation for Polokwane (use this one)Invitation
to a Roadshow Presentation on the
ICT Empowerment Charter

POLOKWANE

MONDAY 29th MARCH 2004   09:30 for 10:00 to approx. 12.00

The Ranch Protea Hotel, N1 - Polokwane

The ICT Charter Working Group (WG), has pleasure in inviting you to this key
roadshow event, part of a country wide initiative to inform and gather
inputs from as broad a spectrum of people as possible.

Your input to the ICT Charter will help shape the future of the Information,
Communications & Electronics Technology (ICT-E) industry in South Africa.
Please see below for background information. Please do not miss this
opportunity to contribute.

The ICT Charter Draft can be seen at:
http://www.ictcharter.org.za/content/ICTCHARTER_Draft1.pdf

Your assistance in extending this invitation to your colleagues or
executives from other companies who would be interested, would be greatly
appreciated.

The audience is intended to be persons involved in ICT –Information
Communication Technology – in which we include IT (Computers, networking,
cabling, software, hardware etc); telecommunications (telephones, PABX,
data, modems, transmission etc) and electronics (including electronics and
cabling, but excluding domestic and security i.e. consumer applications).

Invited persons will be from industry, Government organizations,
parastatals, learning institutions, industry associations, etc.

Business size can be from the smallest SMME to the largest parastatal, as
all will be affected.

Job Titles include MD, CEO, CFO, Procurement Officers, IT Managers, HR, etc.

There is no charge to invited guests. Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP as indicated below, as places are very limited. We do apologise
if this invitation reaches you a little late, due to circumstances beyond
our control.

Our team looks forward to meeting you and hearing your views.

Best regards

Dali Mpofu

ICT Charter WG Chair

RSVP:   Kindly confirm your attendance with the following:

Sharon Mugeri or Lizzy Mncube

Tel: 011- 315 0483 / 011 315 4175

Fax: 011- 315 2276

Email: info @ ictcharter.org.za

EVENT DETAILS

Date: MONDAY 29th MARCH 2004

Time: 09:30 for 10:00 to approx.  12.00

Venue: The Ranch Protea Hotel, N1 - Polokwane



ICT CHARTER BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The ICT Charter Working Group (WG), has pleasure in inviting you to
contribute to this series of key events which will help shape the future of
the Information, Communications & Electronics Technology (ICT-E) industry in
South Africa.


Recognising the importance of the issue of Black Empowerment in ICT-E, and
wishing to pre-empt a Government imposed Charter, Industry & practitioner
organisations have joined together to facilitate the process of debating &
formulating a proposal for the Charter, for submission to Government. These
organisations include the Black Information Technology Forum BITF, Computer
Society of SA CSSA, Electronics Industry Federation EIF, IT Association ITA,
Information Industries SA IISA, the SA Communication Forum SACF, and the SA
Chamber of Business SACOB.

The ICT Charter Working Group (WG) has as its objective the gathering of
inputs from all stakeholders, debating in open forum, collating and
submitting to Government, in order that the eventual issue of the Charter
will take into account the full opinions of the ICT-E community.

The Working Group has already made several strides in ensuring that we in
the ICT sector will boast a transformation blueprint acceptable to the
widest audience including all of our stakeholders, the government, the
broader South African population irrespective of race, colour, gender, class
or creed, and the investment community for this country.

However, merely from the above list of constituencies one can appreciate the
delicate job of balancing their separate interests in fashioning any
economic strategy. The enormity of a task has never been an insurmountable
obstacle to South Africans. The uniqueness of our situation has always only
been a catalyst for the creativity and elegances of our solutions. The
government’s Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment strategy is a typical
example of this. It is neither totally voluntary nor completely
prescriptive. It provides no punitive sanctions for non-compliance, with the
only punishment being self imposed and curable economic demise for
“offenders”.

It is against this background that the task of the Working Group is
unenviably complex and yet exciting. We have repeatedly stated that our
guiding principle in this process is INCLUSIVITY. Everything else we do is
subservient to this principle. When deadlocks arise, as sure they will, the
Working Group has formally adopted the notion of “sufficient consensus.

This first Working Draft was issued on the 9th March 2004, and is a
culmination of a deliberately protracted process which was publicly launched
on 25 June 2003 following extensive behind-the scenes talks among the key
industry associations in the ICT sector. On the 16th and 17th September
2003, some 600 delegates representing a cross-section of our sector and
population gathered for two days at the Sandton Convention Centre and set
the tone for the current co-operative spirit prevalent in this effort.

Earlier this year, on 16 February 2004, a mini-summit was held at Eskom
Convention and opened by the Minister of Communications where delegates
focused their attention on the wider community issues of bridging the
digital divide and Corporate Social Investment, specifically on how these
items should be accommodated in a broad-based ICT BEE Charter. Some of the
creative proposals offered from the floor went beyond the wildest
expectations of the conveners of these gatherings. Parallel to these, inputs
have been received from various interest groups representing industry
associations, individuals, multinationals, state-owned enterprises,
individual companies of all shapes and sizes, conference goers, etc.

In addition the Working Group decided to form an internal Research Team with
some full time staff and volunteers. The unit is augmented by the services
of two independent research agencies, Empowerdex and Forge Ahead whose
valuable input has been procured.


A series of provincial road-shows have been planned for the months of March
and April. At the Roadshows, members of the Working Group and Research team
will present the background and current content of the ICT Charter, and
invite questions and discussion. Inputs will all be recorded and inputted to
the process.

These numerous processes are ALL aimed at feeding into a final document
which is still projected for finalization not later than 25 June 2004 being
the anniversary of our first public announcement of the process.

This First Working Draft is aimed at teasing further discussions on the
charter in a more structured way. The intention is definitely not to
circumscribe the areas of discussion. On the contrary, any issues left out
need to be brought to our attention. For obvious reasons, the first draft
seeks to ask more questions than provide answers.

In this respect, your input to the Roadshow will be an important factor.

We undertake to issue monthly updates or drafts until completion. The
quality of these further drafts will be directly dependent on feedback
received primarily from the industry associations, the road-shows and the
Research Unit. Anybody else is welcomed to participate via our website at
www.ictcharter.org.za.

An important aspect of the charter obviously relates to the post-adoption
implementation phase of the charter. We urge discussants to give some
serious thought to this issue. After all, the implementation phase is likely
to go into the next decade and will therefore span a longer period than the
policy formulation stage. Moreover, the work of economical transformation
will never be “finished” in our lifetime. Continuous revision and
improvement of our socio-economic strategies is an inherent part of our
evolving new country.

Finally, it remains for me to, on behalf of the Working Group, to urge you
to attend the Roadshow, and to thank all those who have directly and
indirectly volunteered their time to this process. We do apologise for the
short notice given in this invitation.

Let all of us in unison repeat our guiding cry:

“Hamba Digital Divide! Woza Transformation!”

DALI MPOFU

CHAIRPERSON: ICT EMPOWERMENT CHARTER WORKING GROUP


Please Note: This is a discussion forum and as such it would be appreciated
if you would acquaint yourself with the ICT draft charter by going to our
website on www.ictcharter.org.za  or for a copy of the Charter go direct to
http://www.ictcharter.org.za/content/ICTCHARTER_Draft1.pdf

This event is sponsored by SITA, Multichoice, and SAP

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