Dimakatso Qocha

Advocate Dimakatso Qocha is an ICT Policy and Regulatory Specialist.  Her experience among others, covers legal drafting, policy and regulatory analysis, negotiation skills as well as regulatory compliance.  Her career in the ICT sector began in 2004 when she joined the Legal Division at Sentech. Dimakatso was subsequently moved to the Regulatory Division of the organisation and served as Specialist: Policy and Licensing. She joined Sentech at a critical time when the sector was gearing itself towards convergence. At the time, Parliament had just initiated a public consultative process on the then “Convergence Bill” (which culminated into the enactment of the Electronic Communications Act.)

She later joined the National Association of Broadcasters (the NAB) as Deputy Executive Director, where she worked for nearly 10 years. Her role at the NAB was among others focused on liaison with the NAB members to formulate policy and regulatory submissions on broadcasting policy and regulatory issues, and frame industry positions on matters of common interest. During her term at the NAB, her Intellectual Property Rights skills developed, as she was party to negotiations on needletime royalties between broadcasters and collecting societies.

She further delved into the corporate governance and oversight space when she was appointed as a Non-Executive Director at the Road Accident Fund (RAF). At RAF she also serves as the Chairperson of the Remuneration Committee. She currently serves on the board of the National Film and Video Foundation (the NFVF), and the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (the IAJ). She has completed several Director development programmes offered by the Institute of Directors of South Africa (the IODSA).

Dimakatso holds an LLB degree obtained from the National University of Lesotho in 2000. She was admitted as an Advocate in 2006. She possesses a Postgraduate Diploma in Interpretation and Drafting of Contracts, obtained from the University of Johannesburg. She is currently working towards her Masters in ICT Policy and Regulations with the University of Witwatersrand.