MDDA appoints Potye as new CEO

The Board of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Zukiswa Potye as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Agency.

Potye’s work experience spans more than 27 years in both the private but mostly public sector.

Prior to joining the Government of Communication and Information System (GCIS), she was a Programme Coordinator at the National Electricity Regulator (now NERSA), and a Director for Monitoring and Evaluation at Blue IQ.

Potye holds a Postgraduate Diploma and a Master of Commerce Degree in Project Management from Cranefield College, a Management Advancement Programme (MAP) from Wits University, and certificates in applied risk management from Unisa and in Business and Life Coaching.

“Potye was selected from a pool of some 65 applicants, based on, amongst others, her knowledge of and strategic vision for the community media sector, her commitment to good governance, fairness and transparency and her ability to engage with people and create lasting partnerships aligned to the mandate of the MDDA.

 Zukiswa Potye as Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

“Potye took over as Acting CEO following a period of considerable turbulence at the Agency. In this role, she commenced the process of stabilising the Agency, as well as introducing a number of important initiatives, critical to the sustainability of the MDDA and the community media sector,” said Chairperson of the MDDA Board Ndivhuho Norman Munzhelele.

Some of the initiatives included a grant funding policy for the effective and transparent selection of media projects for MDDA support.

In addition, Potye implemented a proactive strategy to lobby potential and past MDDA funders for support of the Agency’s work, as well as seeking out partnerships with sector stakeholders to pool together resources for the survival of the sector.

“Potye is therefore tasked with continuing her work in turning the entity around and bringing much-needed stability to the Agency.

“Together with her Executive team, her immediate priority is to build a coherent and high performing team, equipped to provide meaningful leadership to a community media sector that is facing an exciting but also potentially disruptive environment, brought about by the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR),” Munzhelele said.

The MDDA is a statutory development agency, deriving its mandate, from Section 16 and 32 of the Constitution Act No. 108 of 1996, thereby providing for freedom of expression and access to information.

As a partnership between the South African Government and major print and broadcasting companies, it promotes and assists in the development of community media and small commercial media in South Africa and the transformation of the media, by providing support (financial, capacity building, etc.)