Talk is cheap
The Department of Communications (DoC) and new communications minister Roy Padayachie recently stated that “the Minister and Deputy Minister believe in the principles of freedom of the media.”
Padayachie pushed the issue further, saying that the DoC will always respect the right of the media to engage openly and transparently.
“It is our view that the media is a critical force in the development of society and has a positive and leading role to play in educating the general public about the importance of ICTs in the advancement of society’s goals and the creation of a better life for our people,” said Padayachie.
“We have invited you here at the DoC to demonstrate to you that the DoC is open for business. We want to do things differently- working faster, harder and smarter,” Padayachie told journalists.
Padayachie continued outlining various ambitious plans and objectives for the DoC, including unbundling the local loop by November 2011, building an integrated national broadband plan and fixing up Sentech, the SABC and ICASA.
These ambitious goals are however nothing new and Padayachie’s predecessors have said more or less the same during their stewardship of the communications minister position. Ironically, talk is definitely very cheap when it comes to South Africa’s Department of Communications.
As a quick test, MyBroadband decided to use the DoC’s website to try to get into contact with Padayachie, and the results show that the new minister may have an uphill battle to make good on his promises to build an efficient department.
We first tried to contact the Department of Communications’ Chief Director of Communications, Pearl Seopela. The only contact details listed for Seopela is the phone number 012 427 7004 – which is currently out of service.
The next logical choice was the Ministerial Spokesperson, Mr Tiyani Rikhotso. The only way to get in touch with Rikhotso according to information provided by the DoC website was to use the online contact form which we duly completed on 11 November. To date no feedback has been received from Rikhotso or the DoC.
It is therefore not surprising that many consumers take promises made by the DoC with a pinch of salt. If Padayachie wants to engage ‘openly and transparently’ with the media, a good starting point may be to remove the ‘engagement bottlenecks’ which exist.
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