Browsing: department of communications

Sparks are expected to fly at the department of communications on Monday when ousted director-general Mamodupi Mohlala is set to return to work. Mohlala says she is determined to reclaim her old job after department of public service & administration apparently failed to find her an equivalent position in another government department.

Mamodupi Mohlala, the recently reinstated director-general of communications, has dismissed as premature an announcement in the Government Gazette that she has accepted a position with the public service sector education & training authority (Pseta).

JSE-listed Allied Technologies (Altech) has threatened to take government to court if it decides to implement a Brazilian digital television standard instead of the European DVB-T standard. The company, which manufactures television decoders through its Altech UEC subsidiary, claims that local broadcasters and manufacturers have already invested R700m in preparing for digital migration on the assumption that SA would adopt the DVB-T standard.

Axed communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has hit back at remarks made by her replacement, Harold Wesso, who alleged in parliament on Tuesday that he had inherited a “sinking ship”. Wesso, who has been installed as acting director-general until a permanent replacement can be found, reportedly told parliamentarians that staff morale at the department had collapsed.

Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has dismissed allegations in a newspaper report that he may suspend department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala as “false, spurious and malicious”. Nyanda’s spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso says in a statement that the minister “exercises political oversight over the department and gives it policy direction in line with his statutory and constitutional mandate”.

Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda is planning to suspend department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala, according to a newspaper report. Business Day reports on Thursday that Nyanda may suspend Mohlala following “repeated disagreements over tenders she refused to sign”.

Did you know SA is supposed to have a telecommunications museum? Few people do. But according to chapter 13 of the Electronic Communications Act, the department of communications must create and manage a museum that showcases the evolution of the history of communications technology in SA.

Details have emerged of government’s plan to create a new tariff monitoring structure in an effort to drive down telecommunications prices in SA. Legislation is being amended to create a new tariff advisory council at the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to help the authority’s councillors and the minister of communications find ways of cutting telecoms

The department of communications has defined broadband as an always-on, multimedia-capable connection able to offer download speeds of more than 256kbit/s. The definition forms a crucial part of government’s final draft broadband policy, approved by cabinet last week. Government describes the policy as “critical for SA to ensure realisation of the goal of an