Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is a controversial figure. Tasked with overseeing SA's IT and telecommunications industries, she wields enormous power and influence. Whether she has used that power to good effect, though, is a matter for debate.
Under her watch, SA's fixed-line telecom prices have skyrocketed and growth in the Internet has stalled. Broadband penetration is pitiful and little has been done to bridge the so-called "digital divide". There have been some successes, though. In mobile phones, for example, growth has been spectacular: there are more than 30m cellphone users in SA. Critics would say this growth has happened in spite of the minister.
Matsepe-Casaburri is often criticised for the slow pace of liberalisation of SA's telecom industry and the extent of government's involvement in the sector.
Born in Kroonstad in the Free State, where she received her early education, Matsepe-Casaburri completed her secondary education in KwaZulu Natal and later attended the University of Fort Hare, where she received her first degree.
She taught for two years in KwaZulu Natal before going into exile in Swaziland, Zambia and the US. She obtained a doctorate in sociology at Rutgers University in New Jersey and was actively involved with the ANC in New York, serving as a member of both the ANC and the ANC Women's League branch office.
She taught and worked for the UN Institute for Namibia in Lusaka, Zambia, and served on the ANC's national education committee. On her return to SA in 1990, she was appointed executive director of the Education Development Trust and was active in the education movement and in policy development. She served on the ANC provincial executive committee in the Free State and remains a member of the national executive committee.
Since returning to SA, she has also served as premier of the Free State - she was the first woman provincial premier - and as first female chair of the SABC. Other roles she has played include being the first woman and black chairman of Sentech, the state broadcasting signal distributor, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of the CSIR. She was appointed minister of communications in 1999.
Her close friend, Sentech CEO Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane - the two have known each other since the early 1980s - describes her as a "warm person" who cares a great deal about family and friends. She says that, like her, Matsepe-Casaburri is shy and when among family and friends does not carry herself as a government minister.
"When she is at home, she is not the minister. She is Ivy."
In social settings, people often don't know who she is. Instead of making a fuss about the fact that she is a government minister, she prefers simply to blend in with the crowd, Mokone-Matabane says.
Matsepe-Casaburri can be combative, which can have the effect of alienating some people, she says.
"She does not suffer fools gladly."
She also draws a clear delineation between her work and her private life. This became apparent to Mokone-Matabane in the 1990s when, as a councillor at the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which regulated the SABC at the time, she frequently had discussions and negotiations with Matsepe-Casaburri, who chaired the public broadcaster at the time.
"We can argue various points of view and regardless of whether or not we agree, we remain friends."
