Eddie Funde: Ex-SABC chairman, envoy, telecoms pioneer 1943-2018
Said to have pocketed R4m after brokering illegal broadband sale
In exile, he was a dynamic antiapartheid lobbyist
● Sonwabo Eddie Funde, who has died of a heart attack in Johannesburg at the age of 74, was a former chairman of the SABC and South Africa’s ambassador to Germany.
Two years into his appointment, he fell over a balustrade and landed on his head while attending an event in Berlin. He was a virtual quadriplegic for the rest of his life.
In spite of this he remained astonishingly active as an ANC stalwart and vociferous critic of President Jacob Zuma, demanding his resignation.
Funde, who obtained a master’s degree in electrical engineering from St Petersburg Polytechnic Institute in what was then Leningrad in 1975, was one of the pioneers of the post-apartheid communications environment.
He worked with the government to develop the 1996 white paper on telecommunications policy, which resulted in the formation of the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, of which he later became deputy chairman.
His appointment by president Thabo Mbeki as chairman of the SABC in 2004 was controversial because of his close ties to the government and ANC.
It came after unsuccessful attempts to bring the broadcaster under tighter government control, and he was seen as the man to do this.
One of his first moves was to reinstate former ANC commissar Snuki Zikalala, the notoriously pro-government head of news who’d been fired under the previous board.
Funde’s appointment was seen to conflict with his business interests in the communications technology industry. Soon after he became chairman he featured prominently in a news item on SABC TV about one of his companies.
In 2010 reports emerged that while chairman he had used his extensive political contacts to broker an illegal deal involving the sale of wireless broadband spectrum by the state-owned signal distributor Sentech to a private telecommunications company. The SABC was a key client of Sentech.
He was one of the chief beneficiaries of the deal, which Sentech admitted in parliament was illegal and a violation of the Public Finance Management Act. Funde was said by key players in the deal to have scored R4-million plus shares in the company.
When he left the board in 2008 he became South Africa’s man in Germany.
Funde was born in Soweto on July 21 1943. He matriculated at Orlando High School, joined the then-banned ANC in 1963 and became active in the underground. He was arrested and released without charge.
In 1965 he went into exile in Zambia and was sent to the Soviet Union to further his education.
He spent five years studying for his master’s in electrical engineering which he obtained in 1975, becoming fluent in Russian in the process.
He worked for the ANC in Sweden and Dar es Salaam organising the ANC’s scholarship programme for young South Africans and then moved to Zambia as the international head of the ANC youth section.
In 1983 he joined the diplomatic service of the ANC and went to Sydney as its representative for Australasia and the Pacific.
He opened an ANC office there and built a network of anti-apartheid activists across Australia and New Zealand that played an important role in promoting the ANC’s sanctions and disinvestment campaign.
He was a dynamic and effective lobbyist for the anti-apartheid cause and organised successful fundraising events.
It was sometimes dangerous work. Campaigners were attacked and shots were fired through the front windows of his home, which was placed under police protection.
In 1987, largely through Funde’s doing, Sydney granted the freedom of the city to the still-imprisoned Nelson Mandela.
The culmination of his efforts was the visit by Mandela to Sydney in October 1990.
Mandela stood on the steps of the Sydney Opera House and was greeted by a roar from the crowd, which stretched as far as the eye could see.
Funde returned to South Africa in 1992. He is survived by his wife, Nosizwe, and two children, Themba and Vuyo.