Incumbent communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has been nominated to serve on the ANC`s national executive committee (NEC). This is despite commentators` view that Matsepe-Casaburri should leave her post and allow for increased leadership in the country`s ICT matters.
Several political analysts, economists and market commentators who are keeping watch on the run-up to the ANC policy conference, in Polokwane, in December, all say regardless of whether Matsepe-Casaburri makes it onto the NEC, a change in ICT leadership nationally is long overdue.
Neil Emerick, council member of the Free Market Foundation, says: "Matsepe-Casaburri has long been an obstruction to telecoms growth in SA.
"From a free-market perspective, her policies have crippled SA`s competitiveness and reduced our ability to create new technology businesses."
Political commentary
Professor Sipho Seepe, president of the SA Institute for Race Relations and a political commentator, says that whoever becomes the next ANC president, the ruling party`s collective will be more involved and aggressive in its approach to ICT post-Polokwane.
"Minister Matsepe-Casaburri has not exactly done an excellent job," says Seepe. "Under Thabo Mbeki, people have been appointed in areas where they have no competency."
Seepe says the ANC has resolved that the presidential prerogative to appoint ministers will in future be subject to consultation with the party`s NEC. "They will be asking if people have the right skills, not just if the president likes them, or whether they are loyal or praise singers."
According to Seepe, the ICT agenda "imposes itself" on whoever is to become the next ANC leader.
"The ANC policy itself is to take people out of poverty and people understand that ICT is a driver and enabler of development."
Theo Venter, a political commentator affiliated to the University of North West, says the ANC leadership "will have to consider someone who understands the importance of ICT to take over from communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri as all other developmental goals depend on ICT to succeed".
"There will be increasing pressure to find someone who can address ICT accessibility with greater drive. What the country needs is a champion for the ICT cause."
Weak track record
Dr Raven Naidoo, previous chairman and founder of the Cape IT Initiative, says the market`s view is that Matsepe-Casaburri has served too long as minister.
"We need a lot of things to change, we need a fresh approach," says Naidoo.
He points out that the nomination list for the NEC is "a long list" and Matsepe-Casaburri will not necessarily make it onto the final NEC structure. "There is likely to be a new minister and anything is good compared to where we are," he says.
Alan Levin, past chairman of the Internet Society, says even though progress has been made in developing the ICT agenda over the last two years, Matsepe-Casaburri`s track record "is not very strong".
"Matsepe-Casaburri is obviously highly respected among her peers to be nominated for the NEC, but do we perhaps need someone with stronger commitment to the upliftment of the poor [through the use of ICT]?"
Mthunzi Mdwaba, chief facilitator for transformation, Business Unity SA, agrees that nomination to the NEC does not speak to any specific expertise, but rather generic value in the party.
He also agrees "a lot of things could have been done better" with regards to ICT development during the time Matsepe-Casaburri has been minister.
'We are in need of a new broom in the sector. Matsepe-Casaburri has served her time - we need change."
According to economist Mike Schussler, regardless of what happens politically in December, the Department of Communications (DOC), as whole, needs to be fired. "The DOC is so far behind in its approach to ICT, it no longer has a reason to exist.
"The political leadership of the ANC will have to realise that we need liberalisation; it is going to have to happen. The DOC has no idea what it is doing."
He says that, even in comparison to other developing countries, MasterCard`s Centres of the World Commerce study shows broadband uptake in SA is poor, prices are too high, and connection speeds too slow.
DOC spokesman Albi Modise says the criticism levelled at the department and its leadership "has been said before - it is not a surprise".
"People should judge us on what we said we will deliver and what we have delivered, not their expectations of us. We work within the broader mandate of government and even if people say we should be scrapped, we still think we are doing what we are supposed to do."
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