'Sluggish' department of communications on the mend - report

"It seems the new minister has played an important role. He has offered some decisive leadership on some important issues. He withdrew the draft Public Service Broadcasting Bill and committed to reviewing the Broadcasting White Paper of 1988," spokesperson Kate Skinner told Bizcommunity.com on Saturday, 26 February 2011.

"Also, he made a decisive decision around the digital standards issue. He announced that DVB-T2 would be the new standard. Industry experts have breathed a sigh of relief after all the uncertainty surrounding the issue."

Minister Roy Padayachie replaced retired army general Nyanda who was fired last year by 'his friend' President Jacob Zuma for underperforming and allegedly benefiting from dodgy tenders. Nyanda has since been appointed Zuma's parliamentary advisor.

The need to resolve issues

The report said DoC acting DG Harold Wesso recently presented the department turnaround to the portfolio committee on communications (PCC), in which he pledged to resolve problems besieging his department in the following management areas: strategic alignment, human resource management, financial management and institutional review.

It is also understood that DoC is planning to establish a specialised division staffed with personnel with the requisite skills to better manage its relationships with the abovementioned public entities.

Furthermore, the department is said to be struggling to resolve the issue of people employed willy-nilly - irregular staff appointments - under the former regime.

Skinner said: "It seems that good corporate governance was not scrupulously adhered to. Moving forward, the DoC needs to resolve these issues and adhere to scrupulous good corporate governance, and it needs to be a role model for the institutions it oversees."

Dr Wesso has been acting in this post since Mamodupi Mohlala was unceremoniously fired by Nyanda. Applications for the DG position were closed on 11 February and a permanent appointment is set to be made by 1 April.

The Public Service Broadcasting Bill debate

Skinner claimed that under the previous minister, DoC took a number of strange and unpopular decisions, including the decision to re-open the digital standards debate.

"The other was to introduce the draft Public Service Broadcasting Bill without doing popular research and without following proper processes.

"The bill called for a broadcasting tax without discussing this first with the National Treasury. The bill was also a money bill because it introduced amendments to the Income Tax. It would have needed to be introduced by the Minister of Finances. However, it appears that DoC hadn't even discussed the Bill with the National Treasury."

However, she warned the department not to dare micro-manage the institutions it oversees - as per the PCC discussions. She said: "Instead, it needs to receive regular financial and governance reports so that it can pick up early on if there is a problem.

"Also the department has a very key role to play in terms of policy and legislation, as it will embark on a major broadcasting policy review process in 2011. It needs the internal research capacity to be able to manage this."