Freeing up spectrum to boost broadband adoption is a key challenge for South Africa’s new ministry of telecommunications and postal services, says an expert.

On Sunday, South African president Jacob Zuma announced the creation of the ministry, which is to be complemented by a separate communications portfolio that will oversee regulation, the public broadcaster and the country’s image.

The telecommunications and postal services ministry is headed up by former state security minister Siyabonga Cwele, who has advocated a controversial secrecy bill criticised for seeking to curb journalistic freedom under the guise of classified information.

Cwele’s ex-wife has also been embroiled in a drug dealing scam.

Cwele further replaces Yunus Carrim, South Africa’s previous communications minister who was praised by industry for making progress on key issues such as digital migration, which opens up broadcasters’ frequencies for data services from telecoms companies.

“The appointment of the new telecoms ministry in South Africa could be perceived as a step forward, but this would be entirely dependent on whether the new minister coming in delivers on expectations,” programme manager for information and communication technologies at Frost & Sullivan, Lakshmi Narayanan, has told ITWeb Africa.

“The new ministry should focus on spectrum. However, the service providers or industry players are unsure of how quickly this will be allocated, as ICASA (the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) is still awaiting policy guidance on allocation,” added Narayanan.

Digital migration has been delayed in South Africa as over five ministers have led the department of communications since 2009.

A government plan to introduce set-top boxes (STBs) with conditional access (CA) is also being opposed by broadcasters such as MultiChoice: a factor that has compounded digital migration delays.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has set June 2015 as a global digital migration deadline.