Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri (born 18 September 1937) is a South African politician and has been the country's Minister of Communications since 1999.

Matsepe-Casaburri was born in Kroonstad in the then Orange Free State province and completed her school career in the then Natal province. She then went on to obtain her Bachelor of Arts degree from Fort Hare University before accepting a teaching position Natal.

Shortly afterwards Matsepe-Casaburri went into exile; she spent time in Swaziland, Zambia, the United States of America and Namibia before returning home in 1990. While in the United States she obtained her Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University.

In 1993 Matsepe-Casaburri was appointed as chairperson of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. She was the first woman as well as the first Black person, to hold this position. In 1997 she resigned from this job in order to succeed Mosiuoa Lekota as premier of the Free State province. She was also the first woman to hold the position of premier in South Africa.

Matsepe-Casaburri was appointed as Minister of Communications in June 1999.

[edit] Criticism

Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is widely criticised for being in cahoots with the various telecommunications roleplayers. Her critics claim that she has repeatedly shown disregard for the public at large, chosing instead to protect the monopolies that continue to strangle the country's industries.