No cheer for 11th communications minister in 12 years

Welcome to the game of “another reshuffle, another communications minister”. The appointment of a new minister for the department of communications & digital technologies makes it 11 ministers in 12 years overseeing the sector that is arguably one of the most important to the functioning of the South African economy, along with education and health.

Think about it: Vodacom invested R9.9bn in infrastructure in 2020. MTN SA invested R7.2bn in its network. Telkom added R6.7bn to this pile. Vodacom’s revenue for the past financial year was R98bn, about the same as the South African Police Service budget.

It’s a sector that requires careful, professional oversight and, aside from health and education, is arguably the one that most demands a technocrat or, at least, someone with specialist knowledge. That we are merely seeing a swapping of ministers indicates there is no true commitment to resolving the country’s telecommunications challenges.

It is now a mind-boggling 16 years since the last significant allocation of “highdemand” spectrum that allows broadband communication. Given that the 2005 allocation was geared to 3G communication and that even 4G is now regarded as being an old technology, this symbolises not only the utter failure of government oversight of telecommunications but also provides a measurable insight into the rot that has crept into every corner of the communications department’s role.

Coming in a close second in terms of measurable failure is the digital migration from analogue to digital TV, first announced in 2008. The then communications minister, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, promised it would be completed by 2011. This was already a laughable goal given that the government also intended to use the manufacture of digital set-top boxes to transform the electronics sector. That, clearly at the time, needed to be a long-term process, yet the government tied it to the migration process.

Little wonder that when the International Telecommunication Union’s deadline for digital migration arrived in 2015, SA wasn’t close to being ready.

The country’s current self-declared deadline, set by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his state of the nation address in February, is now set at March 2022. The best that can be said about the announcement is that at least the president mentioned the word “digital” in his budget speech. For the previous decade the total number of mentions of the internet in either the state of the nation address or the annual budget speech could be counted on one hand.

With the remote working and learning demands of the pandemic it appeared for the first time that the cabinet understood the foundational role of the internet in the economy and in helping address SA’s challenges. If the president took these challenges seriously he would have sought out an appointee who knew the sector and its challenges. We had a superb minister a few years ago in Yunus Carrim, who was reshuffled after a mere nine months, during which he achieved more than most other ministers of communications put together. Clearly, however, he is not part of the inner circle of patronage.

The constant reshuffles in both this and the small business development department, which has now swapped ministers with the communications department, make a mockery of the government’s promises of building the economy. With a third minister in four years small business joins communications among key sectors of the economy that are treated as beach balls, there as a distraction rather than a national priority. Most of the ministers may as well have spent their time on the beach for all the value they’ve added to these sectors.

New communications & digital technologies minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni may have what it takes but the telecoms sector is not even taking a waitand-see stance any more. It has learnt from bitter experience that it must keep doing what it’s been doing — building the sector despite the government rather than thanks to the government. It is due to the commitment of the major operators to keep improving infrastructure every year that we have such robust networks.

If Ntshavheni wants to achieve the smallest measure of success that has evaded her predecessors she must play an enabling role rather than trying to punish the sector, as several previous ministers have attempted, including her predecessor, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams. The best the sector can hope for is that Ntshavheni will want to leave behind a positive legacy.

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