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The Portfolio Committee on Communication and Digital Technologies has welcomed the undertaking made by Minister Mondli Gungubele to fill the vacant position of Director-General (DG) in the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies. 

Minister Gungubele told the committee that the recruitment process is currently underway and that the department plans to conduct interviews in May 2023. The department has been without a DG since 2018, when the sixth administration merged two departments to form the current Department of Communication and Digital Communications. 

The interaction between the committee and Minister Gungubele took place during the committee’s oversight visit to the department’s headquarters in Pretoria. The committee is currently conducting an oversight visit to meet with members of organised labour from the department and its entities in order to understand key challenges facing the workforce. 

Committee Chairperson Mr Boyce Maneli said: “We are not here to arbitrate on labour-related matters or play the role of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. Ours is to understand the issues because they impact on the performance of the department and its entities.”

Some of the issues raised by organised labour include the department’s obsolete organisational structure, which has since been approved in 2018, security concerns at the South African Post Office outlets in rural communities, ghost workers and unpaid pensions. 

The committee will continue its oversight visit to the Northern Cape to interrogate the department’s SA-Connect programme in Steynville on Thursday and Douglas on Friday. 

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communication and Digital Technologies, Boyce Maneli