The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence Force. Between 1961 and 1994, the office of head of state was the state presidency.
The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was the previous name of an intelligence agency of the South African government. Currently it is known as the Domestic Branch of the State Security Agency. It is responsible for domestic and counter-intelligence within the Republic of South Africa. The branch is run by a Director, who reports to the Director-General of the State Security Agency. The Director is also a member of the National Intelligence Co-Ordinating Committee (NICOC).
The Cabinet of South Africa is the most senior level of the executive branch of the Government of South Africa. It is made up of the President, the Deputy President, and the Ministers.
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is one of the departments of the South African government. It is responsible for overseeing the South African communications, telecommunications and broadcasting industries. The political head of the department is the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, who is assisted by a deputy minister. As of August 2021 the minister is Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and her deputy is Philly Mapulane.
The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services is the justice minister in the government of South Africa. He is the political head of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJCD), the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), and the Office of the Chief Justice. DoJCD is responsible for administrative support to the courts, oversight of the National Prosecuting Authority, the provision of legal services to departments of state, and law reform; and DSC is responsible for prisons and community corrections programmes.
The State Security Council (SSC) was formed in South Africa in 1972 to advise the government on the country's national policy and strategy concerning security, its implementation and determining security priorities. Its role changed through the prime ministerships of John Vorster and PW Botha, being little used during the former's and during the latter's, controlling all aspects of South African public's lives by becoming the Cabinet. During those years he would implement a Total National Strategy, Total Counter-revolutionary Strategy and finally in the mid-eighties, established the National Security Management System (NSMS). After FW de Klerk's rise to the role of State President, the Cabinet would eventually regain control of the management of the country. After the 1994 elections a committee called National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee was formed to advise the South African president on security and intelligence as well as its implementation.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies is a Minister in the Government of South Africa, responsible for overseeing the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies. In 2014 President Jacob Zuma split the ministry by establishing the position of Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, but the ministries were combined again in 2018 under President Cyril Ramaphosa. President Ramaphosa changed the name to Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services. He later changed to the name to Communications and Digital Technologies.
The Minister of Correctional Services was a minister in the government of South Africa, who was responsible for overseeing the Department of Correctional Services. The ministry existed between 1990 and 2014 – it was known before 1994 as the Ministry of Prisons – and has now been subsumed under the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services. Before 1990, correctional services were administered within the Ministry of Justice; a separate department and ministerial portfolio were established only when extensive prison reforms were announced in the early 1990s, under the cabinet of F.W. de Klerk. In July 2014, at the beginning of the second Zuma cabinet, the portfolios were merged again, creating the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, which now has a dedicated Deputy Minister of Correctional Services and which oversees the Department of Correctional Services.
The State Security Agency is the department of the South African government with overall responsibility for civilian intelligence operations. It was created in October 2009 to incorporate the formerly separate National Intelligence Agency, South African Secret Service, South African National Academy of Intelligence, National Communications Centre, and COMSEC.
David Mahlobo is a South African politician and Deputy Ministry of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation. He is a former Minister of Energy and former Minister of State Security.
Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Minister of Small Business Development since 5 August 2021. She previously served as Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies from November 2018 to August 2021. She is a member of the African National Congress (ANC).
Kopeng Obed Bapela is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises since 6 March 2023. Before that, he was Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2014 to 2023. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he has been a member of the National Assembly since 2002 and a deputy minister since 2010.
Ayanda Dlodlo is a South African politician and former cabinet minister. A former member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, she became a Member of Parliament for the African National Congress (ANC) in 2009. Thereafter, she was appointed Minister of Communications (2017), Minister of Home Affairs (2017–2018), Minister of Public Service and Administration, and Minister of State Security (2019–2021).
Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize was a South African politician who served as Minister of Higher Education and Training and Minister of Home Affairs under President Jacob Zuma. A member of the National Assembly and national executive since May 2009, she was Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities when she died in September 2021.
Mondli Gungubele is a South African politician, trade union leader and educator who is the current Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies and a member of the National Assembly of South Africa for the African National Congress. He previously served as Executive Mayor of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (2010–2016), as Deputy Minister of Finance (2018–2019), as Chairperson of the Social Development Committee (2019–2021) and as Minister in the Presidency (2021–2023).
Arthur Fraser is a South African civil servant and former intelligence operative who was head of the State Security Agency from 2016 to 2018 and National Commissioner for Correctional Services from 2018 to 2021. He was previously an anti-apartheid activist in the African National Congress, a senior official in the now-defunct National Intelligence Agency, and briefly a senior official in the Department of Home Affairs.
The executive branch of the national government of South Africa is divided into the cabinet and the civil service, as in the Westminster system. Public administration, the day-to-day implementation of legislation and policy, is managed by government departments, which are usually headed by permanent civil servants with the title of director-general.
Ncediso Goodenough "Zizi" Kodwa is a South African politician and communications strategist who is currently serving as the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture since March 2023. Before that, he was the Deputy Minister of State Security from 2019 to 2023. He was formerly the national spokesperson of the African National Congress (ANC) from 2014 to 2018.
Moe Shaik, also spelled Mo Shaik, is a South African civil servant, diplomat, businessman, and former intelligence operative who has been the South African High Commissioner to Canada since 2022. He is a former chief of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee and a former director of the foreign intelligence wing of the State Security Agency, at that time still called the South African Secret Service.
