Ex-spy boss relishing new role
Cwele’s new job to protect ordinary citizens from online crooks
SIYABONGA Cwele says he is not, and never was, a super spy. The former intelligence minister, who now heads the telecommunications and postal services portfolio, also promises not to read your letters or hack into your e-mail in his current role, as he alleges some have claimed.
Instead of a team of intelligence operatives, Cwele is now working with an army of “cyber soldiers” to protect South Africans from any cyber threats.
He said a perception lingered that he was still a spy.
“I’m not a spy,” Cwele said. “I was just the minister responsible to make sure that the spies behave properly. I was not the one who was collecting intelligence. I was just the recipient.”
The transition from intelligence to telecommunications and postal services presented “absolutely no difficulty” for him. “Here, my job is to give information, it is to assist citizens get information.
“We must make sure that as we surf the internet there is confidence that no one is doing funny things to you.
“People say ‘ah, this man is going to open our letters and now he’s going to have access to all our networks’. No. Now I’ve got cyber soldiers, citizens, trying to make sure that what we put there is safe,” Cwele said.
He may have left the intelligence community, but Cwele is still in touch with the spy agencies which provide his department with information on cyber security.
“The police will also give us information and say those are the criminals and that’s what the criminals are doing. Science and technology is helping us with innovation around that.”
On the much-feared digital migration of television broadcasting signals, Cwele said no one would be cut off from the television feed, even if they did not have a set top box yet.
Through “dual elimination”, those on analogue can stay tuned in. This will not come cheap and will cost the government about R108-million.
Cwele, who delivered his de- partment’s R1.4-billion budget last week, has set ambitious targets like creating free Wi-Fi hotspots by 2020.
“Municipalities should be the main provider of free Wi-Fi spots.
“Once we connect all our post offices, they will have free Wi-Fi hotspots. In provinces like Gauteng and the Western Cape, they are creating free Wi-Fi hotspots around schools.”
Telkom has been designated the lead agency in the expansion of the broadband network as part of the government’s rollout of internet services to government offices where there will be an “open access” network, available for use.
Another Cwele priority is the SA Post Office, which is expected to rack up a R1.3-billion loss, almost equivalent to his department’s entire budget.
In November, Cwele announced that the full Post Office board had resigned.
He is confident of a successful turnaround once proper leadership structures are put in place.