Solly Malatsi

Mmoba Solomon "Solly" Malatsi (born 22 December 1985) is a South African politician who is currently serving as Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies in the Government of National Unity (GNU) since July 2024. He has been a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since May 2014. He has served in the national leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA) as a deputy federal chairperson since 2023. Malatsi was the DA's national spokesperson between June 2018 and November 2020 and again from August 2022 until July 2024. He was also the Parliamentary Counsellor to the DA Parliamentary Leader and held posts in the DA's shadow cabinet.

Following the 2024 South African general election he now serves as the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies.

Political career Malatsi became a parliamentary researcher for the DA in 2008.

In June 2018, Malatsi was appointed as national spokesperson for the DA, succeeding Phumzile van Damme. He was re-elected for a second term as an MP in May 2019. He then became the party's Shadow Minister in the Presidency in June. In October 2019, he was appointed parliamentary counsellor to the newly elected DA parliamentary leader, John Steenhuisen.

On 24 November 2020, Malatsi stepped down as the DA's national spokesperson. Malatsi was reappointed to the shadow cabinet as Shadow Minister in the Presidency in the following days.

In the 2020 Register of Members’ Interests, Malatsi revealed that he had received remuneration from the Foschini Group for a sports photo shoot.

On 18 August 2022, Malatsi was appointed as the DA's national spokesperson, succeeding Siviwe Gwarube, who became the new chief whip of the DA's parliamentary caucus.

Malatsi was elected as one of three deputy federal chairpersons of the DA at the party's Federal Congress in 2023. In April 2026, Malatsi stood for re-election as a federal chairperson. He supported Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis's campaign for DA leader. He was re-elected at the party's Federal Congress on 12 April 2026.

National government In July 2024, Malatsi was sworn in as the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies. The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies in the National Assembly, Khusela Diko, criticised Malatsi's decision, describing it as a potential "death knell" for the SABC.

In April 2026, Malatsi published the Draft South Africa National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy 2026 for public comment and subsequently withdrew the draft policy following a scandal involving the inclusion of fake, AI-hallucinated citations in its reference list. On 25 April 2026, Khusela Diko, the chairperson of the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies publicly called for the Minister of to withdraw the policy on an X post, Two unnamed officials were suspended pending internal investigation into the inclusion of fictitious citations.