Boot Nyanda out, says DA
South Africa’s official opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) said in a press statement yesterday that it has noted that the Minister of Communications, Siphiwe Nyanda, appears to have launched a media campaign to paint himself and his performance at the helm of the Department in a more positive light.
“This follows on persistent reports of mismanagement within the Department and its entities, and rumours that the Minister may well be redeployed,” said Natasha Michael, the DA’s Shadow Minister of Communications.
Michael is however not impressed, saying that the attempts by Nyanda to conceal his Department’s failings beneath the veneer of good governance are misleading and not supported by the facts.
“Rhetoric only counts for so much – scratch below the surface and it quickly becomes apparent that the DoC is in serious disarray. The Minister needs to be held to account for this. On the one hand he needs to be removed from his cabinet position; on the other, he needs to explain to the South African public what went wrong,” says Michael.
According to the DA there are six fundamental problems facing the Department:
- The financial and management woes of the SABC
- The poor management of Sentech
- The various scandals concerning the minister himself
- The Department’s poor annual report
- The Minister’s deteriorating relationship with his former DG
- Failure to fulfil the Department’s core mandate
“The DoC is mandated to develop ICT policies and legislation; ensure the development of ICT infrastructure; strengthen the role of ICASA, and increase the oversight of the SOEs responding to it. The Minister has failed to achieve meaningful progress on all counts and in fact, managed to spend only 11% of the budget awarded to his Department last year,” said Michael.
The DA further attacked the DoC’s decision to revise its decision to use the DVB-T standard to service the country’s digital TV needs.
“In 2008, South Africa adopted the European Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard. The ICT industry indicated that they had spent over R700 million in preparation for adopting the standard. Sentech also invested R500 million,” Michael said.
“However, earlier this year the Department indicated that it might be adopting the Japanese standard for digital migration instead, which is of a poorer quality. The Minister has yet to indicate which standard will be adopted, with the 2011 deadline for digital migration fast approaching.”
The DA said that if the cabinet is reshuffled, Minister Nyanda needs to be removed from his position. “He also needs to account to the South African public for the mismanagement detailed above, and so the DA will use the Minister’s next appearance before the portfolio committee to put these concerns to him and ask what he intends to do about them,” Michael concluded.
Should Nyanda be fired? << Please give your views
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