Clearing away the static on the line

Minister hopes to harness untapped talent in department to create a foundation for speedier delivery

CAN he switch on his phone? This is a question often asked by information technology industry sceptics who are wary of Yunus Carrim's appointment as communications minister.

But Carrim, a former journalist and sociology lecturer, is unfazed as he takes on his most senior political role since he became an MP in 1994.

He is one of the top intellectuals in the ruling alliance and was deputy minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs from 2009 until President Jacob Zuma promoted him to the communications job, replacing Dina Pule.

This makes him the fourth communications minister in as many years.

He has his work cut out. South Africa is likely to miss the 2015 deadline to convert the analogue broadcasting signal to digital, which requires the government to distribute between five and seven million decoders to poor households at a total cost of R4.5-billion.

Rolling out broadband to improve internet connectivity is also one of the areas driven by the department.

Carrim has eight months to make an impact before next year's elections, when the current administration's term will expire.

He says he wants to lay a foundation so that the department can speed up its performance when the new political term starts after next year's polls - whether or not he is returned to the job when a new cabinet is appointed.

His first month in office has been spent meeting key stakeholders, including managers in parastatals which fall under his department. His department is "highly challenged", he says, but he has come across capable civil servants who can do much more.

They just need a nudge to deliver on programmes they have been sitting on, he says.

"All they wanted was someone to prod them. For example, people have been sitting with policy and they have not been moving.

"They have the expertise. All they required is someone to breathe down their neck to deliver."

He and his deputy minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, have to be realistic about what is possible, considering the constraints in the department, which include vacancies in key areas, he says. They have to exercise "political and strategic oversight" over the department and set clear goals. "We are going to be pragmatic, consensual. We will move swiftly and in a phased manner."

After consulting a broad array of stakeholders, Carrim will put together an advisory team of about 10 representatives from the business and political spheres. He will meet this advisory body once a month.

He has already met twice with the SABC, which he calls a "challenged" institution. A joint task team has been set up, with representatives from the Treasury, his department and the auditor-general to look carefully at financial and operational issues to help the public broadcaster turn around its operations.

Carrim says South Africa cannot afford sluggish progress in information technology policy development and the infrastructure roll-out.

"We are lagging behind many other middle-income developing societies. Even countries of comparable economic and social weight, we are lagging behind them when, in fact, in the mid '90s this issue of ICT was higher on our agenda."

The idea of an information superhighway was a prominent debate in the 1990s, but it has since lost momentum. "In that sense, we were a step ahead of many of our peers. Now we are lagging behind several of them."

He has had varied experience from serving in different portfolios, including chairing the local government and public enterprises committees. He also serves on both the ANC's national executive committee and the South African Communist Party's central committee.

The former youth and civic activist from Pietermaritzburg is careful not to use his promotion as a vanity trip to build his own legacy. "There's a notion politicians have of legacies. Quite frankly, yes, presidents leave legacies. I'm not so sure that one minister among 32 ... is going to leave any legacy, certainly not in six to nine months. That's not my intention.

"It's just that I am applying the same commitment to this new portfolio as I did in the struggle."