Former communications minister in deep trouble

The Minister in the Presidency responsible for State Security, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, is one step closer to knowing the outcome of the investigation into fraud and corruption about an irregularly awarded R2.5 million municipal tender under her management.

News24 reports that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation — The Hawks — has finalised its investigation into the matter and handed the docket to the Director for Public Prosecutions for a decision.

Ntshavheni served as the Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality municipal manager in July 2009, when the contract was awarded to Makwande Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors.

The contract was to prepare Ba-Phalaborwa’s annual financial statements for 2008/09.

Polokwane High Court Judge Gerrit Muller called for an investigation into the tender’s award in 2020, describing the details surrounding it as unacceptable and devastating.

Muller and a separate Polokwane High Court Judge found in June 2022 that Makwande Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors had submitted its bid after the deadline but was awarded the contract nonetheless.

Their judgements found that once the tender was awarded, Makwande’s contract was extended, and the price owed to the company grew to over R2.3 million. However, only around R268,700 was paid to Makwande for the work it did.

Ntshavheni had allegedly negotiated a price increase with Makwande even though it had yet to submit its bid documents.

Makwande Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors managing director Ronald Nhleko told News24 that his company has been taking legal action against the municipality since July 2012 to recover over R1.8 million, which the company says is due to it.

MyBroadband asked Ntshavheni and The Hawks for more details, but they didn’t respond to our questions.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) issued a statement on Monday, 20 January 2025, calling for Ntshavheni’s removal from cabinet.

“She cannot serve as Minister in this portfolio (or any), while under such a serious criminal investigation,” writes DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard.

“We call on her to step down immediately. Failing which, the President must relieve her of her duties.”

She highlights that, in addition to her alleged involvement in the irregular tender award, the Auditor-General made scathing findings against her management of the Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality’s finances.

“We call for the National Prosecuting Authority to now proceed with their criminal prosecution of Ntshavheni,” added Kohler Barnard.

Ntshavheni’s political career has seen her hold several positions. After serving as Ba-Phalaborwa municipal manager, she was appointed as CEO of the State Information Technology Agency (Sita).

She and several other Sita executives were placed on precautionary suspension mid-2013 for alleged involvement in an irregular tender award.

Ntshavheni left Sita in 2014, and in August of that year, the Department of Trade and Industry appointed her to an advisory panel on black industrialisation.

Then, in mid-2015, the Department of Public Enterprises appointed her to three years as a non-executive director on Denel’s board.

Ntshavheni was elected to the National Assembly in the 2019 general election, and after the elections, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed her to his second cabinet as Minister of Small Business Development.

She served as Minister of Small Business Development until January 2021, when she was appointed acting Minister in the Presidency following the passing of Minister Jackson Mthembu.

Ntshavheni was moved to Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies in August 2021 following Ramaphosa’s cabinet reshuffle.

She was arguably the most effective communications minister South Africa has had.

During her time as minister, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) finally auctioned off high-valued cellular network capacity.

The spectrum auction raised nearly R14.5 billion from Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain, and Liquid Intelligent Technologies. Moreover, it freed up large chunks of wireless network capacity suitable for 4G and 5G networks.

Ntshavheni had her work cut out to make the auction a reality. Telkom opposed her and Icasa at every step of the way.

However, the auction ultimately went ahead, and Telkom and Icasa eventually reached a compromise.

Ntshavheni also significantly progressed South Africa’s digital TV migration. Previous ministers had avoided potential legal action from stakeholders, but Ntshavheni pushed ahead despite eMedia challenging the project.

eMedia brought a legal challenge to stop Ntshavheni from switching off South Africa’s analogue TV broadcast signals.

The broadcaster won the initial challenge, forcing Ntshavheni into more consultations. The Constitutional Court ruled that South Africa could not switch off its analogue TV signals on 30 June 2022 — one of the communication department’s many deadlines.

It found that Ntshavheni had not done enough to consider the number of people and stakeholders who would be adversely affected by the analogue switch-off.

However, several months later, Ntshavheni announced that she believed the corrective steps ordered by the Constitutional Court had been completed.

She set a new analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2023.

However, Ramaphosa reshuffled his cabinet again on 6 March 2023, removing Ntshavheni from the communications portfolio and appointing her as Minister in The Presidency responsible for State Security.

Therefore, she was not there to see the 31 March 2023 deadline come and go. Her successor, Mondli Gungubele, set a tentative new deadline of 31 December 2024. Current communications minister Solly Malatsi further delayed the switch-off until 31 March 2025.

Regardless, Ntshavheni is one of only three ministers to have made any kind of significant progress on delivering South Africa’s digital television migration project. The other two were Yunus Carrim, and the late Roy Padayachie.

While there may be much to criticise Ntshavheni for, she achieved more in her two years as communications minister than most of her predecessors had in a decade.