South African communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has been removed from his post just days after a government-appointed taskforce identified an “illegal operational model” at state-owned broadband operator Sentech.
Nyanda was one of seven ministers…
South African communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has been removed from his post just days after a government-appointed taskforce identified an “illegal operational model” at state-owned broadband operator Sentech.
Nyanda was one of seven ministers sacked by President Jacob Zuma, who is facing political infighting and growing concerns about his leadership.
According to local reports, Nyanda had come to represent many of the corruption criticisms troubling the Zuma administration.
In a statement on October 25, a spokesperson for Nyanda revealed that a taskforce appointed in July 2009 had found “anomalies” at Sentech.
Referring to 2007’s controversial spectrum deal between Sentech and South African telco Global Web Intact (GWI), the statement said: “One of the identified anomalies found by the Ministerial Task Team in Sentech’s business was the illegal operational model which was used as a revenue generator in some of their business units or divisions.
“The Minister has since been made aware of this spectrum policy transgression; and that the Ministerial Task Team’s recommendations formed part of the Ministerial brief for the newly appointed Sentech Board. The Board was given a responsibility to deal with this matter as part of the Sentech implementation and corrective plan and that there’s an ongoing investigation conducted by the new board members.”
Local reports have attacked regulators’ apparent complicity in allowing GWI, and Screamer, another South African telco, to allegedly lease spectrum illegally from Sentech.
This follows leaked documents that reportedly show South African regulator Icasa has known about their use of Sentech’s spectrum since 2007.
Nyanda will be replaced by former deputy communications minister Roy Padayachie.