- Solly Malatsi from the DA is the new Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies in South Africa.
- He will replace the ANC’s Mondli Gungubele, a much older politician who has been demoted to Deputy Minister.
- Will Malatsi’s extensive experience in PR help him drive South Africa’s digital economy?
Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of his national executive cabinet, comprising members of multiple political parties including the DA, PA, IFP, GOOD and others, there is a new Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, and for the first time since the post was created, it is filled by a non-ANC member.
The DA’s Solly Malatsi (pictured above) is the new minister of digital communications in South Africa. Malatsi was most recently the national spokesperson for the party and was once a shadow minister for communications.
However, this will be Malatsi’s most important task to date, as according to the DA’s official website, he has no concrete experience in an executive position, at least not one of such magnitude. Malatsi instead has served as shadow minister for Sports and Recreation and Human Settlements as well as Communications in the past.
He mostly has experience in political communications and media relations (PR), having worked as the spokesperson for a number of Western Cape politicians, including the Mayor of Cape Town, and the MEC of Transport and Public Works.
Malatsi has a Bachelor of Administration degree from the University of Limpopo, and an Honours in Politics from the University of the Witwatersrand. Malatsi takes over the post from the ANC’s Mondli Gungubele, a more senior politician, who is now serving as Malatsi’s Deputy Minister of Digital Technologies. This will surely not cause any interpersonal issues.
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is tasked to drive South Africa’s ICT agenda and develop the country’s digital economy.
Most recently, Gungubele was leading a nation-wide initiative to connect as many South African households as possible to the internet via WiFi. The current scope of the plan is to connect 5.5 million homes within the next three or five years.
The department has also been pushing new policies to remove some of the barriers to the access of data for South Africa. It published a gazette in May of this year that details plans to provide “free basic internet data” to all South Africans.
This is in efforts to increase access to the country’s digital economy, but the plan needs work as it does not address how the government plans to cover the costs associated with providing the data. Malatsi will now inherit these and other ongoing plans from the Gungubele and his former department.
[Image – People’s Assembly]
