Comms DG 'no failure`

Johannesburg, 05 Nov 2007

Media should investigate departmental strategy documents before labelling director-generals as failures, says Department of Communications spokesman Albi Modise.

Modise was responding to Friday`s Mail & Guardian (M&G), which "failed" communications DG Lyndall Shope-Mafole on her performance for the year.

"We are not bothered by this report for the simple reason that the newspaper did not do their job properly. We publish our strategy on an annual basis, laying out what we intend to do within a given year. However, M&G rated the DG on some other basis that we are not able to understand," he says.

Causing havoc?

Shope-Mafole came under fire in the article for failing to rein in high prices and facilitate interconnection, and leaving the Independent Communications Authority of SA hamstrung through under-funding and lack of independence.

M&G also noted local loop unbundling had yet to see progress and that her stance on the landing of undersea cables continues to wreak havoc.

"Things are just going from bad to worse in the Department of Communications. One industry insider even suggested this is the reason for public enterprises minister Alec Erwin`s foray into the communications field, through Infraco, the state-owned infrastructure player," it said.

M&G notes Shope-Mafole refused to grant it an interview and did not answer questions sent to her.

However, Modise says this was simply a result of past experience. "Last year, the DG participated in this review. However, the outcome was not reflective of her participation. For that reason, we could not see the point of participating in this year`s efforts."

Blame game

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck agrees that the department has underperformed. However, he says Shope-Mafole received more of the blame than she deserves.

"The criticism is fairly accurate, but the blame should not be put on Shope-Mafole alone. To my mind it should go broader, all the way to Cabinet. To liken it to education, Cabinet has created an educational system in which Shope-Mafole just cannot pass," he says.

MyADSL founder Rudolph Muller disagrees: "Shope-Mafole`s poor performance is once again an indication of how the department is failing in its mandate to provide affordable telecommunication services to the South African public. A change of leadership, both with regards to the director-general and the minister, may be in order to help improve the poor performance of this flailing department."

Meanwhile, Modise urges interested parties to compare what has been achieved against the department`s strategy document for the year.

"This tells SA what we intend to do and gives government, citizens and players the opportunity to measure us against those objectives. There has certainly been progress against our strategy," he says.

Meanwhile, the State IT Agency`s ex-CEO and current Home Affairs DG Mavuso Msimang passed the rating with flying colours.

Said M&G: "In the eight months Msimang has been at Home Affairs, he has done more to clean up the department than any of his eight predecessors since 1994."

The Mail & Guardian was unavailable for comment.