Communications Minister: Warning lights flashing

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 26 July 2010

Word is out that Communications Minister, Siphiwe Nyanda, has fired his Director-General, Mamodupi Mohlala. This comes after tensions between the two have reached boiling point leading to a total breakdown of relations. There is however more to it than meets the eye.

Warning lights flashing…

Nyanda has failed to provide an explanation for his decision to axe Mohlala, except that trust between them has broken down to a point of no reconciliation.

The Business Day recently reported that Mohlala had refused to approve tenders to people with close ties to Nyanda and his company, General Nyanda Security Services. If these allegations are true, then we’re sitting with a serious problem that needs to be addressed. A Communications Minister should be a person who displays a high level of integrity, common sense, leadership, expertise and should have a clear understanding of the telecoms sector. If Nyanda is the type of person that makes sure tenders go to people with close ties to him and his own company, especially by forcing people who try to uphold the law out of their positions by using vain excuses, then he is definitely not the person South Africa needs or wants as a Communications Minister. It’s after all no secret that a Communications Minister can make or break, not only the telecoms sector of a country, but the country as a whole. The reason for this is simply because affordable and effective telecommunications are of vital importance in most economies, and most economies if not all, are of vital importance to the success of the under-lying countries.

In other words, if Nyanda has axed Mohlala because she refused to help him and his cronies, then the warning lights are definitely flashing and something needs to be done about it.

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