President Zuma appoints two new MDDA board members and a chairperson

They are filling the vacancies left after the departure of Ms Gugu Msibi who served and completed her full five year term, Ms Louise Vale who resigned in September 2012. Minister Collins Chabane thanked Ms Gugu Msibi for loyally serving five (5) full years. President Jacob Zuma thanked Ms Msibi for her dedication and contribution in promoting an enabling environment for media development and diversity. The President referred to Ms Msibi's leadership and direction to having contributed not only towards transforming media access, ownership and control patterns in our country but also that our citizens are able to access information in a language of their choice.

Ms Phelisa Nkomo has been appointed as the new Chairperson with effect from 23rd January 2012 for a term of five years. Mr Robert Nkuna has been appointed as a Board member for a term of three years with effect from the 23rd January 2013. Ms Nothando Migogo has been appointed with effect from the 23rd January 2013 for the unexpired term of office of a resultant vacancy ending on the 31st December 2014. These appointments follow a Parliamentary public participatory process, through the Portfolio Committee on Communications, which recommended Ms Nothando Migogo and Mr Robert D. Nkuna in terms of Section 4 of the MDDA Act.

The MDDA welcomes the new Board members, commit to working with and supporting them, look forward to their leadership and guidance, and wish them all the best in the quest to pursue the mandate enshrined in the MDDA Act. The wealth of their diverse expertise and experience viewed collectively will strengthen and enhance the work of the MDDA. The Agency take this opportunity to thank and salute the outgoing members Ms Gugu Msibi for the sterling work done and Ms Louise Vale, hoping to continue counting on their support in the mammoth challenge of transforming and diversifying the media.

Brief information about the new MDDA Board members is as follows:

Ms Phelisa Nkomo - currently advices the Minister of Public Enterprise, describes herself as a social economist with vast developmental experience, both in the public, and non-governmental sector. An activist with a deep social consciousness! She is passionate about the inclusion of the deprive and socially excluded citizens in development, particularly the development of young women and socially excluded citizens in development, particularly the development of young women and the rural poor, who are so often invisible and isolated. Her long term interest is to see rural communities lifted out of poverty in a way that sustains their livelihoods without an imposition on their external development discourse. Before joining the Black Sach in 2009, Phelisa spent 13 years working with various organisations including trade unions, Parliament of RSA and Open Society Foundation. She brings a wealth of knowledge in media, funding and depth of community development. She recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Economic (ADEP) at the University of Western Cape, having obtained her Honours in Economics at the same university. She is currently working part-time towards her Masters in Economics at UWC.

Mr Robert D. Nkuna - currently advices the Minister of Transport. Previously, he was an advisor to the Minister of Communications. Between 2006 and 2010, he served a full term as a councillor at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). During his tenure at the regulator, he served two terms as the Deputy Chairperson of the Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa (CRASA). He holds a Masters Degree in Public and Development Management from the University of the Witwatersrand, and various certificates on telecommunications and broadcasting policy, competition and interconnection regulation from local and international institutions. Nkuna was involved in the establishment of the MDDA in various capacities. He was part of the community media sector actinides, which made recommendations to Comtask and the DOC during the review of the broadcasting policy on the need for a sustainable funding mechanism to support community and alternative media. As Deputy Director Policy at the Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) he was directly involved in the process that led to the MDDA Act.

Ms Nothando Migogo - is a copyright specialist, having served as Managing Director of the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), a copyright licensing agency which collects and distributes royalties on behalf of authors (book, newspaper and magazine) and publishers of literary and other artistic works. With a Masters Degree in law from Wits University, in which she focussed on intellectual property law and media law, Nothando was well placed to Chair the Group Legal Committee of the SAMRO group of companies. SAMRO subsequently appointed her as Group Company Secretary. Whilst within the SAMRO group, Nothando had to frequently interact with the delicate balance of the needs of fledgling broadcasters, and the need to compensate artists for the use of their work by these broadcasters. Her passions include Africa, music and indigenous knowledge protection; and she was named one of the Mail & Guardian's Top 200 Young South Africans for 2012.

For further information please contact: Hariet Maseko at (011) 643 1100
www.mdda.org.za

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