Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has identified critical skills vacancies within the department, and tasked the newly-appointed director-general, Mamodupi Mohlala, to fill these.
“We have advertised the available positions and we have identified which skills need to be filled. We needed the director-general to be appointed first, because she will be responsible for the process of people selection,” explained Nyanda during an interview with ITWeb.
He says the department has come up short on skills, because key staff members have been poached by some of the top businesses in industry. “The IT industry poaches a lot from government,” adds Nyanda.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has had similar problems, losing key councillors to the telecoms operators. The regulator bled talent in 2006 when several senior staff moved onto the corporate sector.
Former ICASA councillor and executive head of regulatory affairs for Neotel Dr Tracy Cohen noted in an interview with Brainstorm magazine: “It is a well-known global strategy to poach and delay. This yields certain benefits, but we have got to a point where the delay is only of benefit to certain larger companies.”
However, Nyanda says he is confident the appointment of the DG will accelerate the process of filling the gaps at the Department of Communications.
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