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Communications and digital technologies minister Solly Malatsi.
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) will see its staff complement strengthened, as it seeks to fill vacant posts.
The move, says the DCDT, is in line with a targeted succession planning, retention and development programmes.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana tabled the budget at Cape Town City Hall this afternoon. It reflects moderate progress in terms of the country’s economic growth, driven by structural reform gains.
In the 2026 communications vote document, which coincides with the budget, the department notes that spending on employee compensation is set to increase at an average annual rate of 9.1%, from R287.9 million in 2025/26, to R374 million in 2028/29.
It is also in line with the projected increase in personnel from 307 to 338 over the same period, it reveals.
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In terms of expenditure overview, the document shows that transfers and subsidies to the department’s entities and international membership fees account for an estimated 68.6% (R5.4 billion) of its planned spending over the medium-term.
“Of this amount, R1.9 billion is allocated to the South African Post Office for universal service obligations to provide postal services in underserviced areas, R1.6 billion is allocated to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa for regulating the ICT and postal sectors, and R728.8 million is allocated to the South African Broadcasting Corporation for subsidies for its public broadcasting mandate and programme productions.”
The department’s document notes that spending on goods and services accounts for an estimated 17.4% (R1.4 billion) of total spending over the medium-term, mostly for computer services for the maintenance of 948 government sites for phase one of SA Connect (R719 million), as well as travel and subsistence, consultants and operating leases for office accommodation.
“A decrease of 14.9% (R1.7 billion) in the department’s baseline over the MTEF [medium-term expenditure framework] period is due to higher spending in 2025/26 as a result of R1 billion that was rolled over for phase two of the SA Connect project; and one-off allocations to Sentech amounting to R889 million for dual illumination, which is the cost of operating both digital and analogue systems due to the delay in switching off the analogue broadcasting signal (R189 million), and assistance with broadcast transmission costs (R700 million).”
The DCDT is mandated to enable South Africa’s digital transformation to achieve digital inclusion and economic growth by creating an enabling policy and regulatory environment.
In his speech, Godongwana said the fiscal framework tabled in the 2025 medium-term budget policy statement included R8.5 billion that was added to the contingency reserve.
As a result, the special appropriation bill tabled allocates the funds, including R700 million for the DCDT, he stated.
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