The telecoms veteran who headed IT at South Africa’s biggest trade unions

Dr Charles “Charlie” Lewis has had an extensive career in the ICT industry, having worked as a lecturer, headed the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) IT department, and published a book on telecoms regulation in South Africa.

Most recently, he was selected to serve as a councillor on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) board for the second time.

Lewis started his career teaching Mathematics and English at high school level for roughly a decade, starting at Arcadia High School in Cape Town in 1977 and then moving to  Livingstone High School in 1979, according to his website.

He then moved to Zimbabwe, where he taught at Liebenberg High School in Chivhu in 1983 before teaching at Chisipite Senior School in Harare from 1984 to 1987.

After teaching in Harare for four years, Lewis joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) part-time, where he served in the “Tripartite Alliance’s underground structures.”

The Tripartite Alliance was formed in 1990 by the African National Congress (ANC), the SACP, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.

A few years after the apartheid government banned the Communist Party of South Africa in 1950, following the party’s voluntary dissolution due to the suppression of communism in the country, former members formed the SACP.

It was only in 1990 that the ban was lifted, meaning that the party had to operate underground from its founding until the alliance was formed.

During his first few years with the SACP, Lewis worked as an applications analyst and programmer for AECI Information Systems in the mining and manufacturing sector until 1992.

He was then appointed deputy chairperson of the SACP in Gauteng and joined Absa as a senior analyst programmer that same year.

Lewis left Absa after two years and joined Cosatu full-time as their head of IT. Here, he was not only in charge of Cosatu’s internal IT department but also consulted affiliated unions.

He also coordinated the Italian-funded Metric project, which involved developing and implementing Oracle-based membership systems and email and Internet services for Cosatu and its affiliated unions.

Lewis enters academia

After seven years at Cosatu, Lewis left to work as a senior lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand’s Learning Information Networking Knowledge (Link) Centre.

According to the university’s website, the centre was established in 2000 to conduct public-interest research on various technology, innovation, and digital transformation matters.

From 2004 until 2014, he developed, launched, and managed the centre’s Master’s Degree in ICT Policy and Regulation. This time included working as the course convenor, selecting lecturers, and presenting lectures.

Lewis also managed and delivered the centre’s Certificate in Telecommunications, Policy, Regulation, and Management for his 15-year tenure at the institution.

While lecturing at Wits, his research focused on telecommunications, the Internet, broadband, South Africa’s digital divide, and universal access and service.

After leaving the university in 2016, Lewis began work as an independent consultant in the telecoms, broadband, Internet, and broadcasting sectors. This saw him play a significant role in shaping South African digital policy.

Since working independently, his projects have included consulting on the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services’ annual performance plan for 2017 and 2018 and conducting spectrum auction benchmarking research.

He has also produced six reports on artificial intelligence for Research ICT Africa and was consulted by the SOS Coalition on its vision document and policy submission of the Electronic Communications Act amendment Bill.

His research at Wits would later shape his PhD thesis, which was submitted in 2018 and titled The Digital Donga: Universal Access and Service in South Africa 1994 -2014.

The paper received the Doctoral Award 2018 from the South African Association of Political Studies in “recognition of excellence in written work at the doctoral level.”

Lewis also published a book in 2020 through Palgrave Press titled Regulating Telecommunications in South Africa.

The book “examines the core issue of South Africa’s telecommunications interventions and presents definitive conclusions through a historical, case-study format.”

In 2020, Lewis was appointed as a councillor on Icasa’s board, a position he held until the end of 2024. 

During this time, he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of the Western Cape’s Department of Information Systems and Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Lewis will now serve another four years as a councillor on Icasa’s board following his appointment by Communications Minister Solly Malatsi.