Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda should be removed if Cabinet is reshuffled, and he should account to the public for the mismanagement at the Department of Communications (DOC), says Democratic Alliance shadow communications minister Natasha Michael.
Michael's comment has been made in the wake of two statements issued by Nyanda's office over the weekend.
The first statement dealt with the DOC's presentation of its annual report to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications. Nyanda's statement described that presentation as “successful”.
However, after that presentation, on 13 October, the committee issued a multi-party resolution saying that it was “...gravely concerned that, for the better part of the current financial year, the Department of Communications was in a state of virtual disarray, if not, wholly-dysfunctional”.
Nyanda's former director-general, Mamodupi Mohlala, was accused of having “crossed the line” in the DOC's second statement, issued in reaction to a weekend newspaper article that claimed she had been fired the day after she reported tender irregularities to the police and Auditor-General totalling R70 million.
Michael says in her statement that Nyanda appears to have launched a media campaign to paint himself and his performance at the helm of the department in a positive light. This follows on persistent reports of mismanagement within the department and its entities, and rumours that the minister may well be redeployed.
“These attempts by the minister to conceal his department's failings beneath the veneer of good governance are misleading and not supported by the facts. The minister needs to be held to account for this,” Michael says.
She says Nyanda needs to be removed from his Cabinet position and he needs to explain to the South African public what went wrong.
Six problems
Michael lists six fundamental problems facing the DOC.
Firstly, the financial and management woes of the SABC; it has failed to meet the requirements for the R1 billion guarantee from National Treasury.
Secondly, the poor management of Sentech, which Michael says is not on the mend, and that Nyanda has ignored suggestions that it be allowed to raise funds on the capital market.
A third issue is that of the various scandals concerning the minister himself, such as his spending on luxury vehicles and stays at expensive hotels. He was also involved in a number of tender scandals, and was even issued a reprimand by President Jacob Zuma for his public support of dismissed Transnet Freight CEO Siyabonga Gama; and he was found to be in breach of the Executive Members Ethics Act.
Fourthly, Michael cites the DOC's poor annual report, as the department had received a qualified audit for the first time in five years. According to the Auditor-General, the main reasons for the qualified audit were lack of leadership and fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure.
Michael says the fifth issue is Nyanda's deteriorating relationship with his former DG. She says he's been involved in a public brawl with Mohlala, whom he allegedly dismissed for failing to approve tenders awarded to companies linked to him.
“This is a matter that requires further investigation as the reasons for the dismissal of Mohlala are still not clear, since the case was resolved out of court,” Michael says.
Finally, Michael says, the DOC has failed to fulfil its core mandate to develop ICT policies and legislation; ensure the development of ICT infrastructure; strengthen the role of ICASA; and increase the oversight of the SOEs responding to it.
“The minister has failed to achieve meaningful progress on all counts, and in fact, managed to spend only 11% of the budget awarded to his department last year,” she says.
ANC dismayed
ANC members of the communications committee refused to comment on the record, as they feared a political clash with Nyanda.
However, several say privately that they are concerned about the inability of the weekend statements issued in Nyanda's name to distinguish the difference between the minister and the DOC.
“Those statements don't draw a line between the political office and the bureaucracy, or public service,” one ANC MP says.
A second says Nyanda has not really made his mark as a minister, and that is reflected in the chaos of his department.
“We would not have issued that (communications committee) statement if we did not really believe it,” the second ANC MP says.
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