The recent BEE Mini-Summit on bridging the digital divide, held at the Eskom Convention Centre in Midrand, was interesting in many respects - most notably the keynote address delivered by Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.
For starters, our esteemed Minister of Communications actually turned up for an event at which she was the keynote speaker, unlike numerous occasions in the past. Then, we had her slightly off-the-wall musings during the keynote address.
Upon being introduced by Dali Mpofu, she said his introduction reminded her of a few things that she wasn`t particularly proud of (although surprisingly, she made no mention of delayed third cellular licence issues, a botched Second National Operator (SNO) process or any of the other comedies of DoC errors that have occurred in recent years).
The Minister then proceeded to relate the fascinating story on how she came to be named as Communications Minister.
She told the audience how, when newly-elected President Thabo Mbeki called his top party members together back in 1999, in order to hand out the ministerial portfolios, she felt that the only thing she could be sure of was that she would no longer be Premier of the Free State.
As the evening dragged on, Matsepe-Casaburri decided to retire to a side room of the event venue for a little snooze.
Dare we say this was not the last time crowds of anxious people wondered where the Minister was?
Rodney Weidemann, telecoms editor, ITWeb
So when Mbeki came to handing out the communications portfolio, Matsepe-Casaburri was blithely asleep in the next room, causing some confusion in the ANC ranks, as all potential candidates had been asked to attend.
Dare we say this was not the last time crowds of anxious people wondered where the Minister was? One example that springs to mind is when South Africa played host to the Ministerial Oversight Committee (of which Matsepe-Casaburri was the chairman) of the African Telecommunications Union. The communications ministers from 16 other African countries attended the event, but unfortunately Matsepe-Casaburri wasn`t there.
Minister Matsepe-Casaburri went on to regale the BEE mini-summit audience with another of her career embarrassments.
When the time came for the newly appointed ministers to be sworn in, Matsepe-Casaburri says she was on her way back to Bloemfontein when she received a frantic call, telling her she was supposed to be at the Union Buildings for the swearing in ceremony.
While it may have been the first time she was caught heading in the wrong direction, it was certainly not to be the last.
The Minister concluded that while she would probably like to lay the blame for any failures that occurred during her tenure on others, she must accept them as being all her own. We agree.
Nonetheless, with elections due to take place soon and a new Minister of Communications likely to be appointed, here`s hoping that whoever gets the post will be in the right place at the right time, and not asleep in the next room when important things are happening.
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