Communications department director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole on Thursday quit her post with immediate effect, to play a greater role in the political party set up in opposition to the African National Congress (ANC). <\/p>\n
A brief statement from the department said Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe Casaburri and Shope-Mafole had “mutually agreed” to shorten the director-general’s contract at her request, and to release her from her duties with immediate effect. The contract was meant to end next year. <\/p>\n
Shope-Mafole had been at the department for more than 10 years, and was welcomed as a breath of fresh air with more vigorous ideas than the minister herself. Her resignation was triggered by her allegiance to the Congress of the People (COPE), which she joined on defecting from the ANC <\/p>\n
Sources said the ANC was enraged by her switch in allegiance, although it did not appear to have affected her ability to retain her job. <\/p>\n
In December, the director general said that she did not have to resign as she was not serving the ruling party but the people of SA. <\/p>\n
Shope-Mafole said last night she was among the top 12 decision makers within COPE, and her energy and time were needed there more than in the department. <\/p>\n
“Anyone who has followed my career in the past year knows I have got much more into politics,” she said. “I am COPE’s head of international affairs. We have a new party with a very important mission and an election around the corner, and I am needed much more there. <\/p>\n
“I have been a political animal all my life and this party presents a particular opportunity. This year is rather historic and there is a calling for me.” <\/p>\n
The decisions she could help COPE to make would have much more effect on the country as a whole than any decisions she could make in the department, she said. <\/p>\n
Shope-Mafole now intends to play a broader role in issues beyond information and communications technology (ICT), although ICT will still be an area she will champion. “I will hopefully be taking ICT into the political sphere,” she said. <\/p>\n
The manifestos of other political parties, including the ANC, were sorely lacking in issues concerning technology, she said, although it was a means of boosting education and economic development. <\/p>\n
SA’s political parties were doing very little to promote the use of technology compared to countries such as Malaysia. She would work within COPE to make technology and telecoms more of a priority, she said. <\/p>\n
Matsepe-Casaburri thanked Shope-Mafole for her contribution to public service, her outstanding role in the international telecoms sector for more than 15 years and her leadership in Africa. <\/p>\n