While God may work in mysterious ways, he has nothing on Jacob Zuma. Parting seas, burning bushes, resurrecting the dead… that’s child’s play, really.

If you watched JZ announce his new Cabinet recently, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Number One made some mysterious ministerial appointments, obviously beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, and recreated the ICT sector.

In his speech, Zuma created the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services and then redesigned the (DOC). And Jacob saw that it was good.

Effectively, Zuma parted the DOC, burned the country’s hopes of benefi tting from a competitive ICT sector, and resurrected fears of state control over the country’s communications infrastructure, to establish a propaganda machine.

Zuma explained that the new ministry would ensure the country derives more value from booming telecoms and postal services, while the “reconfi gured” DOC would take on more functions.

The DOC would now be responsible for overarching communication policy and strategy, information dissemination and publicity, and would be made up of , the , Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS), Brand SA and the Media Development and Diversity Agency.

This only serves to create more confusion, as no one knows what the implications for the ICT sector will be, but the prognosis is not good.

Subsequently, no clarity is coming out of government either. The DOC, GCIS and Brand SA indicated that their roles are yet to be defined, and this will take time. The Presidency, in turn, is waiting on the new ministers to clarify their departments’ roles.

I can only conclude that all functions pertaining to ICT have effectively ceased, and it’s anyone’s guess when this cumbersome state bureaucracy will start rolling again.

It’s difficult to make sense of any of this; it’s almost as if a black hole appeared in the fabric of reality and sucked in all logic, sense and reason… and apparently " rel=tag>Yunus Carrim.

If this has left you feeling like you’ve taken a long, hard drag on a crack pipe, you aren’t alone.

Speaking of which, the new telecoms minister is none other than former state minister " rel=tag>Siyabonga Cwele, who will not be remembered for his brilliant intelligence work. Rather, Cwele will forever be the spy chief who did not notice that his wife was operating an international drug smuggling syndicate.

I must ask, did he not notice the meth lab operating out of his garage, or the bricks of Columbian snow neatly stacked in his wife’s shoe closet?

Perhaps we should just have faith… but we sort of do. " rel=tag>Faith Muthambi, the disgraced former Makhado municipal manager, is the new communications manger. By all accounts, these two new ministers know practically nothing about ICT. Well, we’re in for quite a ride then.

Happy reading!