Department of Communications (DOC) director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole has emphatically denied that she, her department, or partner have been involved in any impropriety, she said before Parliament yesterday.
“I have been accused of impropriety so many times. By Parliament, some in government and others, so many times... I want it placed on record that no finding of impropriety will be found in my past or anything,” Shope-Mafole said during the question and answer session after presenting the DOC annual report before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications.
Yesterday's session was significant for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it was the first time Shope-Mafole appeared before the committee since resigning from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee to join a new political party. Secondly, it was the first time any officials from the DOC had spoken to members of Parliament since the landmark ruling allowing communications group Altech to obtain an individual-electronic communications network services (I-ECNS) licence, which has thrown the DOC's policy of managed liberalisation into disarray.
Thirdly, it was the first time the DOC had presented before Parliament since it had formulated its manufacturing policy for set-top boxes (STBs), the units needed to convert digital signals for display on analogue TVs. Lastly, it is the first time since the DOC had indicated it would push ahead with its undersea cable project, Uhurunet, even though Cabinet had not given its approval.
Edgy questions
Shope-Mafole's new political allegiance was not probed, as being the DOC's most senior public servant, her position is not under question. However, observers at the meeting said some of the questioning, especially from the ANC MPs, while cordial, showed she no longer enjoyed the protection of that party.
Kgotso Khumalo (ANC) asked four questions surrounding the STB manufacturing; the undersea cables; the appointment of board members by the DOC to its portfolio organisations, which include Telkom and Sentech; and on “just who is the custodian of ICT policy, when other departments seem to be doing their own thing”.
Khumalo also strongly denied the committee had ever accused Shope-Mafole, her partner (Dr Henry Chasia, deputy executive chairman of the Nepad e-Africa Commission), or the DOC of any impropriety.
Dene Smuts, communications spokesperson for the official opposition Democratic Alliance, asked about job appointments. She referred back to reports last year that alleged Shope-Mafole and others in the DOC were getting money for appointing people.
Who to blame?
Smuts also asked if it was Shope-Mafole, or communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, who was behind the decision that the Altech ruling should be appealed.
“The minister makes up her mind about things and she signs them off. It was my recommendation that we appeal the ruling, because the core issue is who is able to issue an I-ECNS licence. ICASA [the regulator], in terms of the Electronic Communications Act, cannot issue them without the minister's approval,” she replied.
Shope-Mafole said she did not know if the next step in the appeal process of petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal would go ahead, as she was still awaiting an assessment from the state legal advisors.
Unpopular ICT
As far as the custodianship of ICT policy is concerned, Shope-Mafole said her department has been at pains over the past several years to demonstrate ICT is a crosscutting implementation for which every department is responsible.
Communications committee chairman Ismail Vadi (ANC) pressed the question as to whether Uhurunet had been given Cabinet approval. He said finance minister Trevor Manuel had told him that no budget allocation had been made for the project that aims to encircle Africa with a fibre-optic cable.
“I have yet to know the National Treasury to find an ICT project that it likes,” Shope-Mafole replied. “Uhurunet does not need any treasury to finance it, because it is the entities that participate that provide the money. However, the recent SADC [Southern African Development Community] ministerial council has said Uhurunet has its approval.”
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