Communications minister Solly Malatsi said on Friday that government is changing its approach to policy formation in the telecommunications sector by incorporating more input from stakeholders in industry, academia and other sectors of society.
Malatsi was speaking to guests at a telecoms industry policy colloquium hosted by the department of communications & digital technologies in Pretoria. The colloquium brought together sector stakeholders from government, industry, academia and civil society in a workshop setting to shape the policy reform agenda to be implemented.
“Today marks a shift from engagement as compliance to engagement as genuine co-creation. It is about government acknowledging that we cannot achieve all our goals by ourselves,” said Malatsi in his address. “It is about listening to you, the people who live with the consequences of policy decisions every day, and understanding what needs to change.”
Malatsi said South Africa’s policy and regulatory landscape has struggled to keep up with rapid technological changes that have reshaped the telecoms landscape in the past decade. With even more radical changes already taking shape, South Africa requires a new approach to policy formation if it is to remain economically competitive on the global stage, he added.
The new approach is based on the thesis that “government does not have the answers on its own”, opting to collaborate with the industry to determine what is most important and how best to approach it.
“Rather than government lecturing to the sector about what ought to happen, this is an opportunity to co-create together. For us, it is an opportunity to absorb the insights, identify the opportunities where the sector feels the fundamentals lie, and then to do the prioritisation of that with a focus on aligning with the core ambitions of this administration around pursuing inclusive growth and job creation.”
Working groups
Colloquium attendees were broken up into working groups that focused on different topics pertinent to the sector. These included investment, market structure, enabling regulation, infrastructure, inclusion, innovation and skills, among others. Once all inputs have been collected, the communications department will collate the data and use it to inform policy development.
The overhaul of ICT policy is a commitment Malatsi made shortly after being sworn in as communications minister in July 2024. Malatsi, a senior member of the DA, is the first non-ANC minister of communications in democratic South Africa and was appointed following the formation of the government of national unity.
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Policy-related matters have been a source of friction for the coalition across multiple spheres of government, including health, education, land reform and foreign affairs. In telecoms, Malatsi has often been at odds with his ANC counterparts in parliament, including communications portfolio chair Khusela Diko, especially over matters related to how employment equity legislation is applied in the sector.
Malatsi in March issued a policy direction on how equity equivalence investment programmes could be used – instead of selling or relinquishing equity – by foreign telecoms companies to comply with black economic empowerment. The move aimed to align ICT sector codes with communications regulator Icasa’s regulations. In an exclusive interview with TechCentral this week, Malatsi said his department is “weeks away” from finalising the policy direction.
In his speech on Friday, Malatsi said that other than the formation of sound policy, improving the speed at which government implements its various policy-driven initiatives is a key goal of the communications department.
“The gap between potential and delivery is too wide. Our sector can drive inclusive growth, but progress is held back by policy instability, the slow pace of decision-making and fragmented mandates. In other words, for growth to happen, government must act with urgency and increased efficiency,” said Malatsi.
Malatsi acknowledged that a trust deficit exists between government and ICT sector stakeholders, largely due to past promises of closer collaboration and greater transparency not being fulfilled. He said rationalising the policy landscape will help clarify the rules and align currently fragmented government institutions for the good of the sector.
Read: 15 months in, Solly Malatsi defends his record as critical ICT reforms stall
“There is no room in our sector for rigid thinking or ideological dogma. The path we’ve followed for years has not delivered the results our country needs. We are here to ask what must change and to begin changing it.
“But let me also manage expectations. As much as we are committed to hearing you, we must be realistic. Resources are limited and policy decisions often require trade-offs. We cannot meet every need, but we can strive for the most positive outcome for the most people,” said Malatsi. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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