Dina Pule, who oversaw Telkom crisis, is back in cabinet — Dina Pule

President Cyril Ramaphosa has returned Dina Pule to the cabinet as minister of social development, more than a decade after she was removed from the executive over an adverse ethics finding tied to a telecommunications sector scandal.

Pule served as communications minister from 2011 to 2013 under former President Jacob Zuma. Her tenure is remembered in the technology sector as one of its most turbulent, marked by paralysis at partially privatised operator Telkom, delays in the migration to digital terrestrial television and glacial progress on releasing the radio frequency spectrum needed for mobile broadband.

In a 2012 column, TechCentral described her as the “minister of destruction”, arguing that government’s constant interference – including its decision to block the sale of 20% of Telkom to South Korea’s KT Corp and its surprise vote against the operator’s board at an AGM – was damaging the company, possibly irreparably. Her handling of digital migration also landed the department in the high court.

Pule was ultimately removed from cabinet after parliament’s ethics committee found she had failed to disclose her relationship with businessman Phosane Mngqibisa, who benefited improperly from her position.

Public protector Thuli Madonsela’s subsequent report concurred, finding that R6-million of a R15-million MTN sponsorship for the 2012 ICT Indaba had been irregularly diverted to Mngqibisa’s company, and that the department of communications had paid for his international travel, including an official trip with Pule to Mexico and the US. Madonsela accused Pule of “persistently lying” and recommended she apologise to parliament, her department and the Sunday Times.

Christian Louboutin shoes

It was the Sunday Times that first exposed the scandal through a sustained investigative series in 2012 and 2013. The newspaper’s reporting also gave the affair its most enduring image: Pule’s red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes, allegedly gifted by Mngqibisa, though the ethics panel found insufficient evidence to substantiate that particular claim.

Pule is one of the top four officials of the ANC Women’s League and the most senior league member sitting as an MP. The social development portfolio has by recent tradition gone to a senior league official. She replaces Sisisi Tolashe, who was fired after failing to disclose a gift of two luxury cars to the women’s league.

Read: Dina Pule chose boyfriend over state

Her reappointment, announced on Tuesday, formed part of a broader reshuffle in which Ramaphosa also removed three DA deputy ministers and moved former DA leader John Steenhuisen out of the agriculture portfolio, at the request of DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis.

Meanwhile, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has added its voice to criticism of Pule’s appointment, calling on Ramaphosa to reverse it. The foundation said it viewed Pule’s elevation to the social development portfolio “with absolute dismay”, arguing that South Africa cannot build a capable, ethical state by recycling individuals whose public records are tarnished by corruption and dishonesty.

It pointed to her 2013 dismissal from the cabinet, when she was sanctioned by parliament’s ethics committee. Placing someone previously found to have compromised her oath of office in charge of a department that oversees social grants for millions of vulnerable citizens was “an insult to the poor”, the foundation said. The appointment signalled that political expediency and factional trade-offs had been allowed to override ethical governance, it added.

The foundation called for the immediate revocation of Pule’s appointment and said Ramaphosa must be held directly to account, explaining to the nation how elevating someone with a documented history of dishonesty aligns with a stated commitment to clean governance. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media