Siyabonga Cwele says he is not‚ and never was‚ a super spy. The former intelligence minister‚ who now heads up the telecommunications and postal services portfolio‚ also promises not to read your letters or hack into your email in his current role‚ as he says some have claimed.Instead of a team of intelligence operatives‚ Cwele is now working with an army of “cyber soldiers” to protect South Africans from any cyber threats.Chatting in his office during an interview with the Times Media Group‚ he said a perception lingers that that he is still a spy.“I’m not a spy‚” says Cwele‚ and bursts out laughing.“I was just the minister responsible to make sure that the spies behave properly. That was my responsibility. I was not the one who collecting intelligence. I was just the recipient‚” grins Cwele.The transition from intelligence to telecommunications and postal services presented “absolutely no difficulty” for him.“Here‚ my job is to give information‚ it is to assist citizens get information. We must make sure that as we surf the internet‚ there is confidence that no one is doing funny things to you‚ " says Cwele.“It’s never been a problem to move from that ministry (intelligence) to this one. Actually it complements it. People say ‘ah‚ this man is going to open our letters and now he’s going to have access to all our networks’. No. Now I’ve got cyber soldiers‚ citizens‚ trying to help and make sure that what we put there is safe‚” said Cwele.He may have left the intelligence community‚ but Cwele is still in touch with the spy agencies which provide his department with information on cyber security.“The police will also give us information and say those are the criminals and that’s what the criminals are doing. Science and technology is helping us with innovation around that. Higher education will have to produce more skills. So we have different roles‚ but all these roles complement each other."On the much-feared digital migration of television broadcasting signals‚ Cwele said no one will be cut off from the television feed‚ even if they do not have a set top box yet. Through “dual elimination”‚ those on analogue can stay tuned in. This won’t come cheap; it’s cost to the government is about R108 million.Cwele‚ who delivered his department’s R1.4 billion budget this week‚ has set ambitious targets like creating free wi-fi hotspots by 2020.“Municipalities should be the main provider of free wi-fi spots. Once we connect all our post offices‚ they will have free wi-fi hotspots. In provinces like Gauteng and the Western Cape they’re creating free wi-fi hotspots around schools‚” said Cwele.Telkom has been designated the lead agency in the expansion of the broadband network as part of government’s roll-out of internet services to government offices where there will be an "open access" network‚ available for use by private internet service providers.Another Cwele priority is the SA Post Office‚ which is expected to rack up a R1.3 billion loss‚ almost equivalent to his department’s entire budget.In November last year Cwele announced that the full Post Office board had resigned.“By June we should have a board. But the problem with Sapo didn’t start today. They didn’t start in 2010. There are Hawks investigations spanning the last ten years‚” said Cwele.He believes there was no real “business thinking” when it came to running some of the Post Offices operations.He is‚ however‚ confident of a successful turnaround once proper leadership structures are put in place.- RDM News Wire..