Government18.07.2024

South Africa’s 17 communications ministers

Solly Malatsi, South Africa’s newly appointed minister of communications and digital technologies, follows a long line of predecessors. He becomes the 17th person to take charge of the ministry in only seven administrations.

Malatsi replaced Mondli Gungubele on 30 June following the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU).

Gungubele, who had served as minister since March 2023, was appointed Malatsi’s deputy.

Since the passing of Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri in April 2009, South Africa’s communications minister position has been a revolving door.

If Malatsi had been appointed two months earlier, the country would have had 15 communications ministers in 15 years.

Mondli Gungubele replaced Khumbudzo Ntshavheni in March 2023.

Ntshavheni had 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.

While minister, she oversaw the auctioning of highly sought-after cellular network capacity by the Independent Communications of South Africa (Icasa).

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.

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

The migration is intertwined with the auction because television broadcasters currently use some of the spectrum assigned at the auction.

Gungubele’s experience, on the other hand, was skewed towards the financial sector, holding a BCom Law and a diploma in nursing.

His career in government began in the Gauteng legislature in 1994, where he served in many portfolios until 2007.

In 2010, he became the mayor of Ekurhuleni, and between 2016 and 2021, he was Deputy Minister of Finance.

While serving as Minister of Communications, Gungubele published the Next Generation Radio Frequency Spectrum Policy Economic Development at the end of May this year.

The policy document outlined how Icasa must regulate and assign high-demand spectrum in the future.

It also expanded on government’s plan for network operators to shut down their 2G and 3G networks so that the spectrum could be reused to expand 4G and 5G capacity.

Like many projects within the portfolio, this policy document underwent multiple delays.

In the draft next-generation spectrum policy, Ntshavheni outlined an aggressive plan for the 2G and 3G shutdown. The legacy networks were supposed to be completely shut down by 31 March 2024, and the first deadline for the project was 30 June 2023.

However, Ramaphosa’s previous cabinet only approved the document in December 2023 — two months after the deadline set by Gungubele.

Mondli Gungubele, South African Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies

Malatsi’s call for stability

Malatsi, who is 39 and one of the youngest members of parliament, has extensive political experience in his 17 years with the DA but not much in the ICT industry.

He was the former spokesperson for the MEC of Transport and Public Works in the Western Cape Provincial Government from June 2009 to May 2011.

Between June 2011 and March 2014, he served as the spokesperson for the Mayor of Cape Town.

Malatsi left this position after he became a Member of Parliament in 2014. He was one of the youngest MPs at the time.

He served in several portfolios as the party’s shadow minister for sports and recreation, human settlements, and communications.

Between 2018 and 2020, he served as the party’s national spokesperson. He was reappointed to this role for this second stint in June 2022.

Malatsi was elected as one of three deputy federal chairpersons of the DA at the party’s Federal Congress in 2023.

When looking at the financial positions of entities such as the Post Office and SABC, it quickly becomes evident why Malatsi has called for stability of the SOEs in his new portfolio.

However, the implosion of the Post Office and SABC are just one of the challenges he must tackle as minister.

Other major concerns include South Africa’s old analogue TV switch-off, currently scheduled for December, and the thorny issue of sports broadcasting rights.

South Africa’s migration to digital terrestrial television and the switch-off of old analogue TV broadcasts initially had a 2011 deadline.

Poor leadership at the Department of Communications, vested interests, and constant litigation delayed the migration for over a decade.

As for Malatsi’s ambitions regarding sports broadcasting rights, he said the industry and public need certainty about how they are managed and disputes resolved.

Malatsi recently met with sports, arts, and culture minister Gayton Mckenzie, as well as free-to-view TV broadcasters eMedia and SABC in an effort to find solutions to the ongoing sports broadcasting rights conflict with MultiChoice’s SuperSport.

Together with the Minister of Sports @GaytonMcK we met this evening with the leadership of eMedia and SABC in an effort to find solutions to the ongoing sports broadcasting rights #GNU pic.twitter.com/JEtpDpEcpC

— SollyMalatsi (@SollyMalatsi) July 16, 2024