Pumla Radebe, chairperson of the boards of the Universal Service and Access Agency (USAASA) and Universal Service and Access Fund (USAF), has resigned under unclear circumstances.
Last night, Radebe tendered her resignation to telecommunications and postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele.
She was in charge of overseeing SA's multibillion-rand digital TV set-top box roll-out.
Radebe first chaired the boards of USAASA and USAF in September 2012 and was pivotal in turning around the ailing entity.
Together with the boards she led, USAASA produced the first ICT access gap analysis, which has since informed the integrated broadband deployments the agency has undertaken in recent years.
Under her leadership, USAASA has been credited with re-igniting the long-delayed broadcasting digital migration concluding its procurement process and getting to production stage. Radebe has also been at the helm of achieving the clean administration the entity now has.
In September, the auditor-general said for the second year, USAASA and USAF both achieved clean audits.
In May, Radebe was embroiled in a qualifications-fraud row after a former employee had approached Parliament querying the authenticity of her degree. She would later sue Mmatlou Morudu, the agency's former executive manager of programmes, for R750 000 in damages for injuring her reputation over the allegations.
"It has been a trying road I have travelled together with my former and current colleagues," Radebe says following her resignation.
"We have stood our ground; we have stayed the course to get the entity to its current position. We have run a good race but for me it is time to depart. It is my sincere hope that government will wake up to the beneficial position of USAASA in enabling the central thrust of the National Development Plan. Until then, the work I have done with my colleagues will stand the test of time and will bear witness to the work we have done."
USAASA said this morning there was no immediate replacement for Radebe but Cwele was engaged in a meeting with the agency's leaders to find a replacement.
Share