Government7.03.2023

14 ministers in 14 years

By Jan Vermeulen

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Mondli Gungubele as South Africa’s new communication minister, replacing Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who has been in the role since 2021.

Ntshavheni will take over Gungubele’s role in the Presidency as the minister overseeing state security and other portfolios the president may require.

Gungubele and Ntshavheni’s swap was part of a larger Cabinet reshuffle that saw Ramaphosa fill several vacancies and move several ministers between portfolios.

He also appointed Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as the Minister in the Presidency responsible for electricity.

“The purpose of these changes is to ensure that government is properly capacitated and directed to give effect to the commitments made in the State of the Nation Address and the Budget Speech,” Ramaphosa said in a televised and live-streamed address on Monday night.

“Understanding that just over one year remains in the term of this 6th administration, these changes are not about overhauling the National Executive,” stated Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa said the changes are intended to fill vacancies and to direct government more effectively towards those areas that require urgent and decisive action.

“I have sought to balance the need for new skills and capabilities to drive the agenda that we outlined in the State of the Nation Address with the important task of ensuring stability and continuity in the work of government.”

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni — South Africa’s best communications minister

Although Ntshavheni’s appointment to the communications portfolio was a surprise, she has proven to be an extremely effective minister.

Ntshavheni came from the small business ministry and replaced Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who had served as deputy communications minister since 2011, and minister since 2018.

While Ntshavheni replaced a very experienced minister, she had some ICT experience.

She served as chief operating officer at the State Information Technology Agency and chief information officer for the Limpopo Provincial Department of Local Government and Housing.

She is also highly educated, holding an MBA from Bradford University in the United Kingdom and two BA Hons degrees from the University of Johannesburg.

Under Ntshavheni, the Independent Communications of South Africa (Icasa) finally auctioned off highly sought-after cellular network capacity.

The radio frequency spectrum auction fetched almost R14.5 billion for South Africa’s treasury from Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain, and Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

More importantly, it has released large chunks of wireless network capacity suitable for 4G and 5G networks.

Getting the auction through was no picnic either, as Ntshavheni and Icasa were opposed every step of the way by the partially state-owned Telkom.

After protracted legal wrangling, Icasa and Telkom ultimately reached a compromise, and the auction was finalised.

In addition to the spectrum auction, Ntshavheni drove South Africa’s digital TV migration.

The migration is intertwined with the auction and Telkom’s legal challenges because television broadcasters currently use some of the spectrum assigned at the auction.

Where previous ministers shied away from potential legal action from unhappy stakeholders, Ntshavheni forged ahead to get the auction and migration done.

Like Telkom with the spectrum auction, E-tv owner eMedia brought a legal challenge to stop Ntshavheni from switching off South Africa’s old analogue TV broadcast signals.

Also like Telkom, eMedia won and forced Ntshavheni into another round of consultations.

Several months later, Ntshavheni returned and announced she believed they had taken the necessary corrective steps ordered by the Constitutional Court.

She proclaimed a new analogue switch-off date — 31 March 2023.

While Ntshavheni will not get to see the switch-off through, she got South Africa closer to finally vacating the analogue TV spectrum bands than any of her predecessors.

As with any politician, there is much to disagree with and criticise Ntshavheni for, but she achieved in under two years what 10 predecessors couldn’t do in a decade.