A lot of people seem to be confused by the appointment of the retired SANDF commander, general Siphiwe “Ghebuza” Nyanda, to head the Department of Communications.
According to various media reports, sources (the anonymous kind to whom no journalists would dream of attributing their own opinion) think his unfamiliarity with the sector will spell delay and indecision.
They have not followed the general's career, clearly. He'd hardly rearranged the furniture in General Georg Meiring's old office when he acquired a luxury Mercedes from the same dealership Tony Yengeni frequents. Three years later, he traded it in for a super-luxury model. When Mosiuoa Lekota questioned the arrangement, it was dismissed as a “normal transaction between two parties” by the SANDF.
Yeah, we all shop at EADS. Got my discount voucher right here.
In June 1998, the former MK commander became chief of the defence force. By September, his ragtag army launched a great big invasion against the mutineering forces holed up in the impregnable mountain redoubts of a vast and remote kingdom. Instead of suffering looting by opposition supporters, the timely intervention resulted in looting by police and soldiers, which was an altogether more proper and orderly state of affairs. Maseru was a dump anyway. It needed rebuilding.
By 1999, he'd arranged for a fleet of destroyers, submarines and other modern weaponry we needed to defend ourselves against the invading Zimbabweans. Not his fault we've since thrown the borders open to dispel any suggestions by foreign imperialists that our border controls might not be up to snuff.
Like many military men, he has a great deal of organisational experience, but of the authoritarian kind.
Ivo Vegter, ITWeb contributor
No, this general doesn't sit still. If anyone thinks he is likely to spend the first year locked in his office figuring out how an I-ECNS licence differs from an I-ECS licence, what Altech's treasonous insubordination means, and who left ICASA outside the chain of command, think again. He'll go in all guns blazing.
Occam's Razor suggests his appointment was due reward for a long-serving comrade. Like the new finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, the general is part of the Operation Vula faction of the ANC. Most are militant revolutionaries or communists or both. He nailed his colours to the mast with a stern rebuke of former president Thabo Mbeki in the run-up to the Polokwane conference. It emphasised the need for subordination to the interests of “the organisation”. The statement is littered with 50-cal phrases like “unbridled rebellion” and “disciplinary measures” against “perpetrators”.
General Nyanda is a central-planning man of The Party. Like many military men, he has a great deal of organisational experience, but of the authoritarian kind. Not many armies involve the private sector, and the few that do are usually derided for it. And it's not like we need lines of communication between Victor Verster and Lusaka.
He is held in low esteem by the Lesotho media: “SANDF records eight casualties on the first day while Lesotho records two at the barracks, one civilian and a sick soldier who could not run away.”
He is held in high esteem by Major General Mohato Dan Mofokeng, chief of defence corporate communication: “Now, after seven years of leading the National Defence Force, the question arises, was Nyanda successful? ... The answer is yes, Nyanda did a sterling job. Although the transformation process is not complete, Nyanda has accomplished what often takes a lifetime. Now, at 55 years of age, one can understand why this brilliant, dynamic leader needs a new challenge.”
Last week, my wishful thinking went along these lines: “Communications is a more complex portfolio than it seems. It requires a minister with experience and a grasp of its policy history. A minister who grasps the tragedy of past policy mistakes...”
I have no idea whether the “new challenge” for his retirement was to bone up on this history.
Other retirees might brush up on the Napoleonic Wars, but one assumes that Moscow and East Berlin covered that, so maybe we're in luck. But don't bet on it.
Once more unto the breach, my friends, once more. Or close the wall with our ISP dead!
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