[itweb] The appointment of former SA National Defense Force chief Siphiwe Nyanda as communications minister has left analysts and observers wondering if President Jacob Zuma had appointed an able administrator or a “securocrat”.
Nyanda has been a vocal supporter of Zuma during his various trials and the battle for power between him and former President Thabo Mbeki.
During Nyanda's tenure as chief of the SANDF, the controversial “Arms Deal” was signed and he held several business interests including those in security companies and is currently head of arms brokerage firm Ngwane that sells military items such as armoured vehicles and small arms on behalf of several local manufacturers.
His deputy minister is Dina Pule, member of the African national Congress' innermost working core, its National Working Committee and is considered a “pragmatic leftist”, by party members. Pule made a name for herself in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature holding several executive council appointments including that of safety and security and agriculture.
They take over a department that has developed a reputation for being dysfunctional and that has remained out of touch with the sector it is supposed to work with. Furthermore the department needs a new director general, the highest ranking public servant as the previous incumbent, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, left office this year to become a member of the Congress of the People party and is now a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.
Independent political commentator Damian Silke says the two main priorities of the new communications ministers would be to continue the liberalization of the telecommunications sector and to restore public confidence in the SA Broadcasting Corporation.
Two members of the ANC, who asked that their names not be used say privately they are surprised by the appointments.
“While we expected the ICT sector to not be a high priority, there was a sense that the new minister would be someone whom the sector would know. This means that we will have another minister who is dependent on advisors,” one said.
The other said that considering the new make up of the communications ministry the priorities may not be what most expect.
“As a former military man Nyanda has a natural leaning towards the security aspects of communications,” the source says. “This means that he will readily understand tweaking and altering legislation relating to that such as the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act and the Regulations for the Interception of Communications Act, rather than re-working the Electronic Communications Act,” the source says.
Nyanda, Pule take reigns at communications ministry
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