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CWU calls for Muthambi's head

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 05 Feb 2016
The Communication Workers Union accuses communications minister Faith Muthambi of not being approachable.
The Communication Workers Union accuses communications minister Faith Muthambi of not being approachable.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has joined calls for the axing of communications minister Faith Muthambi, blaming her for the slow pace of SA's digital migration process.

The union says on 4 March, it will march to the ANC's headquarters in Johannesburg to force the ruling party to sack her.

The labour body's call comes after the Democratic Alliance (DA) said it believes the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services and Department of Communications (DOC) need to be bundled into a single ministry, as was the case before.

Muthambi was appointed communications minister in 2014 when president Jacob Zuma announced a new Cabinet with the formation of the new Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services and a "reconfigured" DOC.

The appointment scuppered the industry's hope that well-liked former communications minister Yunus Carrim would continue in the portfolio.

Among its responsibilities, the DOC is tasked to oversee the country's digital migration. Although SA has kicked off the process, the workers' union has lambasted the slow pace at which it is moving.

The International Telecommunication Union's deadline for the switch-off of analogue television signals was 17 June 2015 and SA missed it.

This week marked the start of the dual illumination period in the country's digital migration process. Dual illumination, or simulcast, is the interim period in which both analogue and digital terrestrial TV signals are allowed to be transmitted at the same time before the analogue signal is switched-off.

Muthambi was not the first minister to oversee digital migration. The department has been rocked in recent years by ever-changing ministers, with outgoing heads leaving under clouds of controversy.

Carrim's predecessor, Dina Pule, accomplished very little under her tenure. Other ex-ministers include the late Roy Padayachee, who took over from Siphiwe Nyanda in 2010.

Besides the sluggish digital migration process, CWU says under Muthambi's watch, the industry has seen an increase in the number of job losses on top of the costly decisions that she has made.

The union also raised concerns on the confusion surrounding the manufacturing of set-top boxes needed for digital terrestrial TV. The body accuses Muthambi of not being approachable.

"She has not moved an inch in order to communicate with us. To have such a minister is problematic," it was quoted by Business Report as saying.

The DA, which has since led the calls for Muthambi's ousting, believes a merged DOC and Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services makes sense.

"This ministry would focus its efforts on improving access to ICT and improving transport infrastructure and security for economic growth. To this end, both the departments of communications and telecoms and postal services would be collapsed, re-imagined and renamed the Department of ICT. This department would regulate, develop and legislate all of the infrastructure that ICT runs on in the country," the party says.

This comes after the DA rated the minister with an "F" for missing the international digital migration deadline, failure to sort out the financial and management troubles at the public broadcaster, concerns with set-top box manufacturing, and a nine-day trip to a luxury goods show.

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