Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      South Africa begins complex job of overhauling media laws

      13 July 2025

      Nvidia CEO to hold high-stakes media briefing in Beijing

      13 July 2025

      Blue Label Telecoms to change its name as restructuring gathers pace

      11 July 2025

      Get your ID delivered like pizza – home affairs’ latest digital shake-up

      11 July 2025

      EFF vows to stop Starlink from launching in South Africa

      11 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025

      Grammarly acquires e-mail start-up Superhuman

      1 July 2025

      Apple considers ditching its own AI in Siri overhaul

      1 July 2025
    • In-depth

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025

      TCS+ | First Distribution on the latest and greatest cloud technologies

      27 June 2025
    • Opinion

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Duncan McLeod » Pretoria, we have a problem

    Pretoria, we have a problem

    By Duncan McLeod1 June 2014
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Duncan-McLeod-180-profileWhat was the president thinking? Last Sunday, Jacob Zuma sent shockwaves through South Africa’s technology industry by dumping his hardworking communications minister, Yunus Carrim — arguably the most competent person to fill the portfolio since the 1990s — and splitting the ministry in two.

    The department of communications will be transformed into a kind of information department — critics say it has all the hallmarks of a department of propaganda — with the SABC, government’s communications arm GCIS, Brand South Africa, the Media Diversity & Development Agency and, troublingly, communications regulator Icasa reporting into it.

    Already, many South Africans hold the view that the SABC, which remains the primary news and information source for millions of people, has been captured by its political masters, much as it was by the Nats under apartheid. Placing it under an information ministry, alongside GCIS, will do little to change the view that it has become a state rather than a public broadcaster.

    Then there’s a new department of telecommunications & postal services (it has such a pre-Internet era ring to it, doesn’t it?), which will be headed by the former state security minister, Siyabonga Cwele. Cwele is best known for championing the contentious Protection of State Information Bill, better known as the secrecy bill. Will the world of modern telecoms, built as it is on openness and the free flow of information and ideas, square with Cwele’s worldview? Will he seek greater government control over the Internet in South Africa? Time will tell, but at face value his appointment is troubling.

    Even if Cwele turns out to be a competent telecoms minister, the instability and delays that Zuma’s changes will cause to the sector are intolerable.

    In five years, the president has had no fewer than five ministers in this crucial portfolio. There was the big-spending Siphiwe Nyanda, who squandered millions of rand in taxpayers’ money on luxury hotels and cars before being sent to parliament as Zuma’s advisor. (Has anyone seen him since?) Nyanda was followed by the affable but ultimately ineffective Roy Padayachie, who was redeployed to public service & administration before his death in 2012. Then came the walking disaster, Dina Pule, whose crookedness while in office was exposed in great detail by the Sunday Times.

    Carrim was a godsend by comparison. He ran a tight ship, would not brook stupidity, and set and stuck (for the most part) to ambitious deadlines. He also made enemies among vested industry interests, most notably MultiChoice, which attacked him in full-page newspaper advertisements over his policy on set-top box control for digital TV. He was also critical of the big mobile operators.

    But those celebrating Carrim’s downfall this week were very much in the minority. As the SOS Coalition, whose members include trade union federation Cosatu and the Freedom of Expression Institute, noted in a statement this week, Zuma has done the opposite of “creating stability in a ministry that has been beset by scandal and the turbulence caused by five ministers in five years”.

    President Jacob Zuma
    President Jacob Zuma

    So, now communications has been split in two, with Cwele looking after a dysfunctional Post Office and a telecoms sector in urgent need of policy certainty, and the little-known Faith Muthambi running the overhauled communications department.

    Assuming the split in ministries is even possible without significant legislative changes — legal experts are warning it isn’t — the fact that it will lead to further delays in critical projects is inexcusable. If Zuma was convinced of a need for change, he should have ensured it was done over a period of years to minimise disruption to the sector.

    His decision appears to be knee-jerk, done more to address a perceived need to enhance the government’s — and presumably the president’s — image in the eyes of voters than to fix the significant policy bottlenecks holding back telecoms and broadband.

    South Africa now won’t make its commitment to meet the mid-2015 deadline to switch off analogue television, it will not allocate the spectrum needed to improve our poor broadband penetration, and a long-overdue overhaul of legislation governing the sector will almost certainly be significantly delayed.

    In short, we have a big problem.

    • Duncan McLeod is editor of TechCentral. Find him on Twitter
    • This column was first published in the Sunday Times


    Brand South Africa Dina Pule Duncan McLeod Faith Muthambi GCIS Icasa Jacob Zuma MultiChoice Post Office Roy Padayachie SABC Siphiwe Nyanda Siyabonga Cwele SOS Coalition Yunus Carrim
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleBackspace: ‘Mr Fixit’
    Next Article SA maths education worst in the world

    Related Posts

    South Africa begins complex job of overhauling media laws

    13 July 2025

    EFF vows to stop Starlink from launching in South Africa

    11 July 2025

    MultiChoice is working on a wholesale overhaul of DStv

    10 July 2025
    Company News

    $125-trillion traded: Binance redefines global finance in just eight years

    11 July 2025

    NEC XON welcomes HPE acquisition of Juniper Networks

    11 July 2025

    LTE Cat 1 vs Cat 1 bis – what’s the difference?

    11 July 2025
    Opinion

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.