NEW South African president, Jacob Zuma has appointed former military general, Siphiwe Nyanda as the new minister of Communications.
Zuma announced that the new minister will be deputized by Dina Pule.
Nyanda takes over from the late Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburri, who died earlier this year from natural causes.
Since then, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has held the portfolio on an interim basis.
Nyanda, who turns 58 later this month, was a South African military commander.
He joined Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Congress, in 1974, and served as a field commander during the liberation struggle against the South African government in the 1980s. He was appointed MK Chief of Staff in 1992, and served on the Transitional Executive Council which oversaw the change of government in 1994.
Nyanda transferred to the South African National Defence Force, into which MK was incorporated in 1994, and served successively as Chief of Defence Force Staff (1994-1996), General Officer Commanding Gauteng Command (1996-1997), Deputy Chief of the SANDF (1997-1998), and Chief of the SANDF (1998-2005).
