The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, published the new Standard of Training of Estate Agents Regulations, 2008 which will take effect on 15 July 2008. Compliance with the prescribed standards of training for estate agents is crucial in light of sections 34A and 34B of the Estate Agency Affairs Act, 112 of 1976, as failure to comply or to hold a fidelity fund certificate could mean that the agent may not be entitled to remuneration work done.

From the effective date of 15 July 2008 anybody wishing to become an estate agent will have to serve as an intern estate agent under a principal estate agent for one year after form the date that the intern was first issued with an intern fidelity fund certificate by the Estate Agency Affairs Board (“the Board”).

An intern estate agent may not perform any act as an estate agent without the active supervision and control of a principal estate agent (or an agent that has held a fidelity fund certificate continuously for three years) or unless the intern has disclosed the fact that he or she is an intern estate agent in all printed material relating to the intern (except authorized advertisements in the press).

Another highlight is the requirement that intern estate agents will not be allowed to complete or draft any documentation relating to a transaction negotiated by him or her, unless a principal estate agent (or an agent that has held a fidelity fund certificate continuously for three years) is present and certifies on the documentation in question that it has been completed in his or her presence.

A person will only be allowed to register as an estate agent once they have complied with the internship requirements and the educational requirements set out in the Regulations. From the abovementioned effective date all non-principal estate agents will have to obtain the NQF (“National Qualification Framework”) Level 4 qualification called the Further Education and Training Certificate: Real Estate, and the NQF Level 5 qualification called the National Certificate: Real Estate is prescribed for all principal agents. These certificates will be prerequisites for the Professional Designation Examination (“PDE”), which is needed to be registered as a full status estate agent by the Board and to obtain a fidelity fund certificate.

The good news for existing agents is that the Regulations prescribe a process of recognition of prior learning (“RPL”). This process will include the identification, assessment and acknowledgement of skills and knowledge which an estate agent may have, whether it was obtained through formal training and education or experience on the job, and will take place within the context of the abovementioned certificates.

Furthermore, agents who are registered as principal or non principal agents on the effective date and that have continuously held a full status fidelity fund certificate issued by the Board for a period of not less than 5 years will be exempted form the PDE.

In addition to the above, the Regulations provide that the Board may prescribe any reasonable Continuing Professional Development requirements as contemplated by the NQF.

The full Regulations can be viewed here: http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=82569

The Estate Agency Affairs Board’s website (www.eaab.org.za) has further information on the new training requirements, based on the draft regulations published in January this year.

When consumers enter into a cellphone contract with a mobile operator, the operator would subsidise the handset considerably in exchange for locking a consumer in for two years. Normally a consumer would have no choice other than buying the phone outright (and then not be entitled to a subsidised handset or special offer monthly fees) or by going ahead and biting the bullet by taking the subsidised cellphone and then being locked in for two years

The new regulations that were published on 17 June 2008 (coming into effect on 17 August 2008) will force mobile operators to provide the consumer with options of a 6-, 12-, 18- or 24-month contract and clearly show the amount by which the handset is subsidised.

This flows through to the requirement that mobile operators must now clearly indicate on your monthly cellphone bill what amount of the subsidy is still outstanding as well as what you will be liable to pay if you would want to cancel your cellphone contract.

If you would decide to go ahead and cancel your contract (to get your hands on that shiny iPhone of course!), the regulations would assist by prohibiting the cellphone providers from charging exorbitant “cancellation” fees (the cancellation fee must in effect be proportional to the remaining contract fees and remaining handset subsidy) to end your contract.

Lastly, mobile operators would now be required to send subscribers a monthly sms to inform them of the amount of “free minutes” that is still available.

When you have navigated the admin surrounding your contract and get to signing up for your iPhone, you can now rest assured that according to the new regulations, a so-called “connection fee” would also not be allowed.

Apart from feeling sorry for the small guys, trying to make a living an honest living, albeit with some grey imports, one really wonders what the sense in ICASA’s madness is? After all, it is not really as if phones, not brought in through the “traditional” channels are any more dangerous than that shiny new dvd player that many has picked up from Hi-Fi Corp.

What is even more worrying is that ICASA is expending its energies on tackling this “issue”, whilst large tele-monopolies do just as they please, with ICASA not as much as batting an eyelid.

Examples, for those who do not follow the industry that closely, include the high-price-vs-bandwidth issues, the Telkom-ADSL-capping-debate, the delays in unbundling the local loop, the flagrant disregarding of regulations without sanction, the well-known delays in licensing the second network operator, the bad drafting of regulations with loopholes galore and the failure to bring down telecom costs, to name but a few.

Although br!ghtshark is lucky that his phone does have the ICASA stamp of approval and doesn’t face an impromptu confiscation of his phone, it is worrying that, in stead of dealing with the obvious issues in the local telecoms industry, ICASA is targeting the small fry. Let’s all hope sanity prevails now that ICASA has been given a bigger budget by Trevor Manual and that we all get cheap bandwith, and fast