Roy Padayachie (62), South Africa's current minister of public service and administration, died Friday night in Ethiopia.
Jimmy Manyi, government spokesperson, announced Roy Padayachie's death and indicated that "the minister died of natural causes". No specific cause of death was given.
Roy Padayachie was attending a meeting of the African Peer Review Mechanism in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Roy Padayachie was the minister of communications until October 2011 when he was suddenlt moved during president Jacob Zuma's last major cabinet reshuffle.
Roy Padayachie as minister of communications was well on his way in turning around the directionless department of communications, the moribund SABC and public broadcasting in South Africa, dealing with dilapidating parastatals such as Sentech and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), when he was suddenly put into another cabinet post.
As minister of communications Roy Padayachie also put renewed effort and bigger focus from government behind South Africa's lagging switch to digital terrestrial television, a process known as digital migration, ending uncertainty when he announced DVB-T2 as the digital television standard for South Africa.
Dr. Ben Ngubane, the SABC chairperson sad the death of Roy Padayachie was "a sad day" in a statement and sent condolences to Roy Padayachie's family on behalf of the SABC board, SABC management and staff.
"This is a sad day indeed for not only minister Roy Padayachie's family, but for the country as a whole. We will always remember his dedication to the broadcasting industry and to the nation as a whole."
