Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies

MINISTER MONDLI GUNGUBELE

MondliGungubeleMinisterofCommunicationsandDigitalTechnologiesOfficial002Profile of Minister Mondli Gungubele

Minister Mondli Gungubele was appointed as the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies of the Republic of South Africa with effect from 6 March 2023. He previously served as Minister in the Presidency responsible for the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), the National Planning Commission (NPC), Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), the Government Communication Information System (GCIS) and the State Security Agency (SSA).

Minister Gungubele has extensive experience in local, provincial, and national government and believes in strategic planning and effective monitoring of systems to ensure that government is held accountable to deliver services to the people. He is a political activist who spent much of his youth fighting for a liberated and just South Africa which is united in diversity.

Minister Gungubele became involved in the trade union movement in the ‘70s and it is this experience that sharpened his political and negotiation skills. In 1982, he became a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and would later be elected as a Chairperson of his Local Branch of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in 1989. In 1992, he was elected as the Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) Vosloorus Branch, and later became the founding Chairperson of the ANC East Rand Region. In the same year, he was elected to the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the ANC in Gauteng.

In 1994, Minister Gungubele was deployed as a Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and was subsequently appointed as the MEC of Health in the Gauteng Provincial Government in 1997. He held this position until 1999. He was then deployed to lead Gauteng’s Sports, Recreation and Arts and Culture agenda as its MEC where he worked tirelessly to unite all sporting codes and contributed to the development of grassroots sports in Gauteng. He held the position until 2004 in the year South Africa was awarded the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup showpiece.

After the 2004 Provincial and National Elections, Gungubele became the Chairperson of the Economic Affairs Portfolio Committee in the Gauteng Legislature where he was responsible for political oversight and ensuring that the Department of Economic Affairs fulfilled its mandate to the people.

In 2009, he was deployed to the National Assembly as an ANC Member of Parliament, where he served as the Whip of the Justice and Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee. He was later redeployed to the City of Ekurhuleni as the City’s Executive Mayor in 2011. It is during this time where he drove the City’s Governance and Administrative record to clean audits and numerous awards on good governance.

In 2016, he was deployed back to Parliament and served on the Portfolio Committees on Communications and Public Enterprises respectively. Mr Gungubele was part of the collective which led SABC Inquiry and the Eskom Inquiry – both processes which paved the way for the turnaround of these two State Owned Enterprises.

Minister Gungubele was then appointed as the Deputy Minister of Finance from February 2018 until the general elections in May 2019. After the commencement of the 6th Parliament in June 2019, he was deployed as the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee of Social Development and the Convener of the Social Transformation Cluster.

In his current position as the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr Gungubulele is the Executive Authority for the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) and the following entities:

  • Broadband Infraco (BBI),
  • Film and Publication Board (FPB),
  • Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA),
  • National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA),
  • South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC),
  • South African Post Office (SAPO),
  • POSTBANK,
  • SENTECH,
  • State Information Technology Agency (SITA),
  • Universal Service and Access Fund (USAF),
  • Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA),
  • ZADNA and
  • Telkom

Minister Gungubele holds a B Com (Law) Degree and a National Diploma in Nursing with various certificate courses. He also serves as a member of the National Executive Committee and National Working Committee of the African National Congress as elected in December 2022.