03 July 2026

The ANC Study Group on Communications and Digital Technologies has noted with concern and disappointment the allegations now in the public domain that bear directly on the conduct of the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr Solly Malatsi. The allegations, made by former Leader of the Democratic Alliance John Steenhuisen, that the public-affairs firm Resolve Communications repeatedly sought to broker access between members of the Executive and its private clients, and that it did so most prominently in respect of Mr Malatsi, on behalf of Starlink is of particular concern. The Study Group’s unease is a singular one: what these allegations mean for the integrity of the office Mr Malatsi holds and for the institutions he superintends.

Resolve Communications is chaired by a former leader of the Minister’s own party, the Democratic Alliance, Mr Tony Leon, and is led by a former chief executive of that party, Mr Paul Boughey. These allegations would describe the dynamic of capture in its precise sense: the steering of executive and regulatory decision-making toward the commercial interest of a private client, mediated by politically connected proximity rather than by the public interest. The concern is sharpened by the Minister’s own policy record. From October 2024 onward he has pursued a policy direction instructing ICASA to recognise Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes as an alternative to the 30 per cent ownership by historically disadvantaged groups required for individual licences under section 9(2)(b) of the Electronic Communications Act 36 of 2005 -a change of particular benefit to Starlink, the operator that has publicly refused to meet that requirement.

The study group accordingly calls on the Minister to account fully and in writing to the Portfolio Committee for any contact between his office, his advisers or his Department and Resolve Communications or its representatives; to disclose every meeting, communication and policy representation made to him or his Department by or on behalf of Starlink or any other client of that firm; and to place before the Committee the complete record of the deliberations that produced the Equity Equivalent Investment Programme policy directions.

We welcome the letter addressed to the Minister by the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, dated 30 June 2026, seeking clarity on the reported engagements between Resolve Communications, Starlink and the Minister. In that letter the Chairperson requests the Minister to disclose any engagement he or his Ministry has had with Resolve Communications, Starlink or their representatives since taking office, and to indicate whether any such engagement bore upon any policy, regulatory or licensing decision, with a written response due by 6 July 2026.

We support the call already made by the African National Congress for the matter to be referred to the Public Protector and the Public Service Commission to establish whether the Executive Ethics Code has been breached and urges the Minister to submit himself to that scrutiny without reservation.

The allegations remain unproven, and the study group does not pronounce on the culpability of any person. It insists only that the office of the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies be held to the standard the Constitution demands: that executive authority be exercised in the public interest, free of undisclosed private interest, and be seen to be so exercised. The Study Group will pursue this matter through every oversight mechanism available to it in Parliament.

Issued by the Whip of the ANC Study Group on Communications and Digital Technologies, Cde I Subrathie.

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