GCIS on its 2020/21 Quarter 1 performance; with Ministry

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Communications and Digital Technologies

25 August 2020
Chairperson: Mr B Maneli (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee met for a virtual briefing on the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) Quarter 1 performance.  Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu, reported that 80% of the targets were met. The unmet 20% was a result of COVID-19. A number of media formats were used to disseminate information on COVID-19, including radio, television, print and billboards. Ms Phumla Williams had been appointed as the new Director General of GCIS. The interview process had begun for three vacant Deputy Director General positions. Staff transformation targets for gender, race and disability were discussed. The budget for 2020/21 was increased by R60 million through the special adjustments budget for COVID-19 communication by GCIS. The Minister assured the Committee that GCIS was above reproach in its COVID-19 procurement.

Members complimented the manner in which GCIS had handled communications since the national state of disaster was declared. They discussed the cost of PPE items and requests were made for further details on PPE procurement.  Overall, the Committee commended the GCIS on such a detailed report and the majority of positive outcomes. Towards the end of the meeting, there was tension as there was a misunderstanding about a comment made about the Minister by an MP but this misunderstanding was cleared up.

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed Minister Jackson Mthembu and Deputy Minister of Communications Pinky Kekana. He acknowledged the passing of Member of Parliament, Adv Hishaam Mohammed, and offered condolences to his family and friends.

The Chairperson informed Minister Mthembu that a topic of this meeting was about strategies to keep South Africans informed about COVID-19 – which has been the topic of a number of meetings before. Members had received the presentation already, thus it would not be covered in detail. The meeting would allow for the Minister to give an overview and note points of public interest.

Minister in the Presidency overview
Minister Jackson Mthembu extended his condolences to the family and friends of Adv Mohamed and expressed how painful it must be to lose someone during this pandemic.

Minister Mthembu said that the Annual Performance Plan (APP) describes how 80% of the targets were achieved. The reason 20% of the targets were not achieved was due to the circumstances of COVID-19. President Ramaphosa has been informing the public of what the government is doing to ensure that the country is not irreparably damaged by COVID-19. The President has been coordinating with Ministers on what socio-economic measures are in place at each disaster management alert level.

Minister Mthembu said that the work achieved during the COVID-19 lockdown complemented what was in the revised APP, even though it was not in the original APP. His colleagues will go into more detail about the measures put in place to keep the South African public informed about COVID-19, including wearing masks, washing and sanitising hands regularly. One of the key messages was for everyone to maintain social distancing, or what some call physical distancing. Platforms such as community radio, SABC radio, television stations, billboards and electronic boards were used to provide information about safety measures. Most government work during the first quarter was to do with COVID-19. He expects there to be questions about how much money from the budget was spent on COVID-19 communications.

Looking at GCIS human resources, they had not done very well in terms of employment equity, especially with regard to Indian people, Coloured people and white people; however they have a plan.

Minister Mthembu said that Cabinet had appointed Ms Phumla Williams as the Director General. There are three Deputy Director General (DDG) vacancies. The application deadlines have passed and the interviewing process will now begin.

Minister Mthembu said that while 25% of the budget should have been spent at this point in the year, the actual expenditure was 27% as a result of COVID-19, which could not have been foreseen. Expenditure in the next three quarters will mitigate the over-expenditure of the first quarter. He thanked Members for holding government accountable.

GCIS Director General Quarter 1 assessment
Ms Phumla Williams, GCIS Director General, said that Minister Mthembu had done a good job in explaining what the first quarter report included. She gave brief highlights about the research that was undertaken. The work done in the first quarter was pleasing and was coupled with a research tracker that monitored society’s response to government messages about COVID-19.

DG Williams was confident in saying that most South Africans were aware of the messages about COVID-19 disseminated by government. Most South Africans were aware of the protocols to minimize the level of infection. However, compliance with these protocols was a “mixed-bag”. The majority of South Africans did adhere to protocols, but there were some who did not comply with what was expected of them. As a result, behavioural change became the focus of intervention in the second quarter. It is important to zoom in on this aspect because health experts say there is still no vaccine nor cure for COVID-19. So, it is crucial that they get South Africans to not only receive the messages, but to get South Africans to act on those messages disseminated by government. This will be the focus for the next quarter.

DG Williams said that one of the key achievements during this period was the production of the Vuk’uzenzele newspaper. Vuk’uzenzele is distributed to even the most rural communities and with a focus on languages of a particular area. In the first quarter, 5.1 million copies of the newspaper were distributed. The content of the newspaper had to change its focus more to COVID-19 as well as to gender-based violence (GBV) content. The majority of the content of the newspaper happened during this period.

DG Williams said another key achievement was radio production. It was a project that they collaborated on with community radio stations. Programmes were produced during this period. In fact, they had overachieved as there were about 113 products. Five post-cabinet briefings are the norm during this quarter but in fact there were more for the simple reason that COVID-19 necessitated special cabinet meetings to ensure that the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) decisions were communicated by Cabinet.

DG Williams said another achievement was the number of media briefings. The initial target was 25 but that was exceeded. The amount of communication with communication practitioners was also exceeded. They were depending on these practitioners to be soldiers who passed on the message of what COVID-19 was all about. Their target for interacting with provincial and district structures completely exceeded the anticipated number of 57, which is very pleasing. They have managed to get the District Communicators' Forums going and those were the forums they were interacting with during this period.

DG Williams highlighted the training on which they partnered with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). The partnership provided them with a lot of expertise in terms of explaining what COVID-19 is all about. They found that a lot of practitioners, communicators and even private sector representatives depended on the forums they convened during this period for a toolkit from the NICD and their communicators. At each presentation, a pack was given to the private sector, organisations and communicators.

DG Williams said her colleagues would present the 20% of targets that were unmet and explain the reasons for the delayed targets.

GCIS 2020/21 First Quarter Performance
Mr Tyrone Seale, Acting DDG: Content Processing and Dissemination, said the unmet target of paying invoices within 30 days, was only 71% achieved due to the fact that at the start of April – the beginning of the financial year – they were dealing with two constraints at the same time. The first was that the payment processing system was not available due to the financial year-end and at the same time Level Five Lockdown had an effect on their operations and those of National Treasury. While there was an underachievement of 29%, it is important to note that this was a departure from the norm, where the GCIS routinely achieves 100% performance in this area each quarter. So, as backlogs are cleared, this will be monitored to prioritise invoices.

GCIS provides audio-visual and photographic services to profile service delivery and to show the nation that government is at work. Commercial media are not always able to be all over the country and so GCIS provide this to other media who are not able to follow government around the country. During the period under review, they underachieved on photographic services because they had fewer physical interactions between government and communities. The same applied to the underperformance in video services where they are normally used to approximately 150 items. Departments request GCIS make available its capacity, technology and infrastructure to help them profile their impact on the lives of communities. Fewer physical interactions between government and communities resulted in fewer requests in this area.

GCIS received about 17 fewer requests than average for graphic design. As the Minister noted earlier, during COVID-19 they did generate a lot of work and they could not have foreseen this until the pandemic struck South Africa. Going into Lockdown Level 2, government will become more physically active and departments will turn their attention to their broader programme of communication and messaging. GCIS will then see an increase in the number of requests for services it delivers in support of other departments.

In the case of Vuk’uzenzele, the DG had commented on the newspaper’s impact and broad reach. It is published bimonthly. There was only one physical edition, whereas digital publication is the norm on www.vukuzenzele.gov.za and the GCIS Facebook page. Those were boosted with Twitter posts. The reason for not producing print editions was Lockdown Level 5 presented a challenge for physical distribution. The company used to deliver has a certain number of crew on board each delivery vehicle and that number exceeded what was allowed in lockdown. This meant they could not get the paper out into the communities. Thus, that edition was not published physically but was done so online and contained a wealth of information about how to protect oneself from COVID-19 infection.

Mr Michael Currin, Acting GCIS DDG: Intergovernmental Coordination and Stakeholder Management, agreed with the Chairperson that Quarter 1 was unusual, and what had hoped to be achieved this year was very different to what was achieved. When they presented the APP at the beginning of the year, there was an emphasis on coordination.

One of the techniques in strengthening coordination plans for the year was to ensure that each of the five clusters had a communication strategy in place for the year as well as for the medium-term, and that there was an accompanying action plan on the range of priorities, opportunities for the public, and information areas. There was underachievement in the social sector, while the other four clusters achieved their goals. The social sector was where the driving of the COVID-19 communication strategy took place. The sector is chaired by Basic Education and Health. These two sectors are the driving force and were immersed in the development of a multitude of communication strategies for the pandemic. As a result, they were not able to conclude their overall communication strategy, i.e. the entirety of their own cluster’s work for the quarter. A lot of that work has been subsumed into some of the work they have been doing. The social sector has caught up in the second quarter.

The Internal Communicators' Forum (ICF) is a mechanism of coordination where they bring together the staff who deal with internal communication work. The internal communication strategy rests on the belief that their 1 million+ public servants must be able to confidently understand the environment that they are working in.

Unfortunately due to lockdown, these colleagues were based at home and the ICF team did not have the opportunity to meet at all in Quarter 1. It was obvious that a lot of the work and the production GCIS was doing in this quarter was cascaded into departments. Many of these ICF colleagues found their space in the overall coordination of the communication campaign for COVID-19, meaning they were quite involved in ensuring that content reached departmental spaces. Although many physical department sites were closed, the content reached the department websites and Whatsapp groups, for example.

GCIS encouraged their team and the other cluster teams to make the quantum leap to platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, to re-orient from physical meetings to these other approaches. The positive thing about this is that they have been able to catch up significantly in the second quarter because they have held a few special Internal Communicators' Forums (ICFs) on that.

The last target that was not fully achieved was the marketing of Thusong Centres. There were two reasons for this. Some of the Thusong centres were completely closed during this period. There were also some areas where the GCIS had vacancies. Currently the team is hard at work for the Annual Thusong Service Centre Week from 14 to 18 September 2020, which involves a lot of promotion, as well as planning for the year ahead. They are quite advanced now in filling those vacancies. They expect to pick up the target comfortably at the end of Quarter 2.

Mr Currin said that a webinar was held the previous day with colleagues in communication from all over Africa. The concept of communication coordination and the better usage of resources was discussed, for example, instead of physical meetings, colleagues were ensuring Whatsapp groups were created for all members of communication groups in their districts, as the DG had noted. This type of thing has really taken off and will hopefully make a significant impact in the way they work and the results they show in the second quarter in being significantly more outwards. Participation and involvment in communication across the board, nationally and provincially, has increased significantly as a result of using virtual instruments for meetings and for coordinating dissemination of information. They are confident that by the second quarter they will have made gains in catching up on unachieved targets.

Mr Keitumetse Semakane, Acting DDG of Corporate Services, presented on governance and staff establishment. There is a staff establishment of 471 posts which have been approved. At the end of Quarter 1, 421 of them were filled representing 89.4% with a vacancy rate at 10.62%. In addition to the approved staff establishment, there are 56 interns, spread throughout GCIS at Head Office and at their nine provincial offices. There are also three contract posts. At Senior Management Staff (SMS) level, 57 posts have been approved. At the end of Quarter 1, 48 of them are filled, translating to 84%. To highlight what the Minister already indicated, they are very happy a DG has finally been appointed after many years without having one. There are three vacant DDG positions and the Minister’s instructions were to advertise them. Applications closed last week and within a short space of time they will be able to fill those positions.

As the Minister already alluded to, they are doing everything they can to ensure they adhere to employment equity targets. Currently, they are sitting at 58% females. For disability, the national target is 2% and happily, they are sitting at 3.33%. Their intention is to further exceed this target. At the SMS level, their gender target for females is 50% and currently this target is being met. Their target for African is 75% but they are sitting at 85.27%; Coloured is 6.41% with a target of 9%; Indian is 3.09% with a target of 5%; white people is 5.23% with a target of 11%. Reiterating what the Minister said, there is a plan in place to ensure a balance will be reached so that there is an equal representation.

Mr Hennie Bekker Acting Chief Financial Officer, outlined the financials. On programme one, they had spent 25% by 30 June which meets the quarter target. On programme two, content processing and dissemination, they spent 30%. That overspending was due to a combination of COVID-19 expenses as well as transfer payments to their two entities: International Marketing Council (IMC) and the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA). On programme three, they spent 21%. This underspending was due to the lockdown and its restrictions on travel. Therefore, the overall spending was 27%, over the target by 2%, mainly due to programme two.

Mr Bekker looked at the economic classification of expenditure. On compensation of employees, they spent 22% instead of 25% mainly due to vacant posts, although those are in the process of being filled. Their budget allocation to public entities was 33% against the total allocation to the public entities. Goods and services and capital expenditure amounted to 28% as a result of COVID-19 expenditure. In sum, expenditure for Quarter 1 was 27%. They do not forsee an over-expenditure on the operational budget for the year. The budget will be streamlined as they move forward in the financial year.

Mr Bekker referred to the additional R60 million allocated for COVID-19. By 30 June, 85% had been spent: R16.3m went to radio (SABC commercial and community), R22.1m went to television, R6m went to advertising agencies which were appointed through an open bid process, R12.8m went to outdoor advertising and R2.8m to leaflets, posters, branding and wall murals.

Mr Bekker outlined the radio allocation: R2m was allocated to community radio stations and R8.5m to SABC radio stations. The balance was commercial. For television, R1.8m was allocated to community television and R11.8m to SABC television channels.

Mr Bekker said that for other departments that approached GCIS to do communication of advertisements through their media bulk-buying process: R13.7m was spent, of which R4m was allocated to SABC radio and R9.7m to SABC television channels.

Mr Bekker gave a breakdown of expenditure for Quarter 1 specifically relating to COVID-19, separate to the R60 million COVID-19 allocation. They spent R157 000 on PPE (masks and gloves), R59 000 on sanitisers, R105 000 for loudhailers for provincial offices, R581 000 on panels and screens to ensure social distancing between colleagues in the workplace, R132 000 on disinfecting and cleaning their building and R105 000 on infrared thermometers. This totalled R1.139 million for Quarter 1.

Discussion
Ms P Faku (ANC) remarked how impressive the work of GCIS always is. The 80% achieved target was especially impressive because of this difficult time. COVID-19 has positives and negatives. One of the positive things has been how well GCIS has been performing. It is as if government and GCIS speak as one and even a child knows what was been happening. GCIS has contributed positively to the COVID-19 period. There is already a path towards recovery because of information being disseminated via radio and other media. The distribution of 5.1 million newspapers in different languages must be celebrated because the goal is for every single person in South Africa to be given the opportunity to understand what government is doing. The work is appreciated. The radio platforms used by GCIS in this period have also helped showcase what government is doing. Whether it is good or bad, there’s transparency, and that is appreciated.

Ms Faku also welcomed the appointment of the DG. She thanked Minister Mthembu for having confidence in women. It can be seen that the entity is changing very positively. Since there are many concerns around PPE, she asked the Minister and the DG if they had had any problems with PPE? Were there people who felt that departments misused government funds or tenders?

Mr C Mackenzie (DA) thanked GCIS for an excellent presentation. He congratulated GCIS on the digitisation of Vuk’uzenzele. The publication can also be found on the website PressReader which Parliament makes accessible during this time where being at the venue itself is not possible. Given the worldwide decline in print media, Vuk’uzenzele will eventually have to stop being printed – are there activities, training, initiatives or programmes to encourage people to move from the printed version to the digital one on their devices?

Mr Mackenzie asked if there could be a more detailed breakdown on what the money spent on PPE was used for. A price per item would be very useful.

Ms N Khubheka (ANC) congratulated GCIS for reporting such positive results. She thanked the Minister for the appointment of the DG, saying she can tell that the DG is a hard worker.

There is indeed work that needs to be done on the vacancies. GCIS did a good job in communicating about COVID-19 to the community and in monitoring how people were responding to the regulations.

Ms Khubheka said GCIS is working very hard on employment equity.

Ms Khubheka referred to the extra R60 million for COVID-19 communications and said it is clear that they do need a lot of money as they have already spent 85% and this shows that they know what they are doing. We need to take care of GCIS for the work to continue.

Ms Khubheka noted the 27% expenditure of the budget – it is indeed work in progress. She commended GCIS for doing a great job even though a lot needs to be done. She expressed appreciation for the synopses and scenarios provided by GCIS about PPE. She encouraged GCIS to continue this calibre of work.

Minister's response
Minister Mthembu said that the Members' comments were heart-warming and appreciated. Everyone who is in public office is there to do the best they can for the people who elected them into office. The team will continue to do its best to serve its nation, its people. The country’s people expect no less. The people expect them to do their best. They decided to be very transparent with the Committee. That is why in their preparations, the cost of a single surgical mask per unit is included, which is approximately R12.48. All those breakdowns are available. This applies to the cost of sanitisers: 90 boxes of 350 500ml hand sanitiser units per box totals R31 500. Every provincial office and headquarters received one of these boxes. They have given each GCIS employee at least five masks.

Minister Mthembu replied there has been no indication of inflated prices on PPE, whether for masks, gloves or sanitisers. The same goes for cleaning materials used to deep-clean offices. There was a sense that the prices which have been detailed to the Committee are acceptable and within Treasury recommendations. Items were found to be within the appropriate price range. Colleagues can be assured that the outcry over inflated prices of PPE is fully supported by the Minister.

Minister Mthembu said that some people have been buying PPE items from sellers who are not normally producers of those items. He had clearly stated to GCIS where PPE items ought to be bought from – not from friends who have all of a sudden become producers of masks, gloves or sanitisers. He realised the producers from where PPE items were bought have not been identified, but the details would be supplied. PPE items were bought from the appropriate producers, that is, people who have always sold these items. They are an honest department, they live honestly, they do not cut corners to serve their own pockets.

Minister Mthembu said that as the political head, he wished to thank the DG and the acting DDGs and all those who work under them for adhering to proper governmental principles to the extent that it can be said that, with his head held high, all these items were bought honestly. Corruption has not entered GCIS. It is possible for external parties to check these prices to see government has done what was expected of it. It can be assured that they have done what the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer expected of us. The DG may give further details if desired. This merely represented an overview of their motto and DNA. They are a non-corrupt department who work with non-corrupt officials because that is what they had been elected to do: to serve the people honestly and diligently.

GCIS response
DG Williams thanked the Minister. On matter of PPE, the Minister is correct and the CFO can attest to this. If there was a deviation from Treasury regulations, the supply chain and the CFO were expected to make a submission to the DG. It could be confirmed that no deviation from Treasury regulations had been signed so it can safely be said that the cost breakdown which the Minister articulated is what they and the CFO know to be true. The last time GCIS met with the Committee, it assured them GCIS remained committed to Treasury guidelines and regulations.

The information has been compiled on the names of the PPE companies  and this will be made public in another forum. All departments are expected to submit a list of the companies used to buy PPE items. GCIS has submitted this information to Treasury which will be published at the appropriate time.

DG Williams spoke about the digitisation of Vuk’uzenzele which is indeed the intention. However the challenge that remains is that the communities they serve still require hard copies. They are paying attention to what Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) is doing in widening the areas with bandwidth accessibility and a reduction in data costs to make digitisation possible. That is the intended direction. Digitisation would save GCIS a lot of money, allowing it to be able to do other things as well.

DG Williams referred to the budget and said there is no doubt that when resources are invested in communication, outcomes like the ones seen in Quarter 1 are yielded. The R60 million that National Treasury provided – and the Minister’s submission for this was appreciated – did yield the desired results. The coordination that the Minister led resulted in departments seeing the bigger picture. The overall intention is that all the pockets of money in different departments of communication can be pooled so that the targeted information is effective. A few departments have bought into this plan and the CFO attempted to highlight the number of those departments.

DG Williams expressed appreciation for the positive feedback as once before, there had been criticism. The kind words propel them forward.

Mr Bekker remarked that they did follow Treasury’s instructions. One of the instructions was to use transversal contracts, which it made available to departments. In instances where the companies on the transversal contracts were not able to provide stock, approval was given for GCIS to go outside the normal procurement process, which they did do, through a quotation process. Items were bought from the cheapest quotation.

Mr Bekker said the cost of the thermometers was on the second last slide. Seventeen thermometers were bought, which cost R105 000. The unit cost is indicated on that same slide. In all procurement processes, they have followed Treasury’s instructions.

Mr V Pambo (EFF) was impressed by the Minister’s presentation. He requested the names of the PPE service providers be made available, including date of purchase, number of items bought, date and time of payments and date and time of deliveries. This information would complete the report.

Mr Mackenzie asked how many latex gloves come in one box.

Minister Mthembu said he will definitely share the names of the companies from where PPE items were bought,when those items were bought and when they were delivered. The information about the gloves will be put into writing.

Minister Mthembu assured the Committee that they were not being played. There has been an outcry in the country about PPE corruption, however government was transparent with its information as it was made available. There is no intention to play anyone. He did not take kindly to the insinuation that Committee members were being taken for fools. They are accountable to the Committee. Both the Presidency and Treasury have asked for the names of the companies used for PPE items, and the names of the directors of those companies. There will be no problem at all in releasing this extra information as their hands are clean. They are not a corrupt group, therefore they have nothing to fear.

Minister Mthembu thanked everyone and said they will continue to commit themselves to doing their best. This is what the people of South Africa expect of them. He appreciated the wonderful comments that many colleagues have made about the work they are doing, the structure of the report and the information given. He reiterated that there is no intention to play anyone. They have every intention to be transparent with Parliament.

Mr Mackenzie disagreed with the Minister. Mr Pambo referred to the Minister as a chess grand master with his opening remarks, that he had come to the Committee having anticipated all the moves and all the players that were going to come at him and that he had skillful defences and information available to counteract any moves against him. Mr Mackenzie thought Mr Pambo made a great compliment. He offered the floor to Mr Pambo.

Mr Pambo said he did not want to rehash anything, but he would simply say – although not necessarily following from Mr Mackenzie – that the Minister was being overly sensitive and that he must have missed the picture he was attempting to paint. If one follows the logic of the comment that was made, the report has done some of the things that were anticipated. And then to go the extra mile, extra information would be appreciated. He did not know the Minister was so sensitive and that perhaps he was looking for something horrible from Mr Pambo. It was more of a compliment than an attack. It would be unfortunate if the Minister saw the comment negatively. If the Minister rejected this positive comment, then only negative comments will be made in the future. No animosity was intended. He asked the Minister to reevaluate his interpretation of the comment. He thanked Mr Mackenzie for intervening.

The Chairperson agreed that Mr Pambo’s comment was made to be complimentary as the Minister was forthright with information and basically answered questions before they were asked, as evidenced by the few questions that were actually asked.

Minister Mthembu gave his sincere apologies to Mr Pambo. Perhaps Mr Pambo’s comments were misconstrued. To err is human; to forgive is divine. In hindsight, his comments were perfectly understood. His comments stand withdrawn.

The Chairperson said that the Minister’s apology was honourable and that he expected Mr Pambo took it kindly. The virtual link to the Mr Hishaam Mohammed's funeral had been shared and thus the meeting would come to a close.

With the next audit, the DG has a difficult task of obtaining a positive audit being DG for the first time. All the previous years were positive when she was Acting DG. So far, one is comforted due to her following procedures and not signing off on deviations. The message one wants to send, where government is shown to be seamless and transparent, these experiences should be shared with colleagues in other departments. It would be good if government is seen to be delivering in emergency situations, without compromising governance and accountability. As long as government's work is up to this standard, compliments will continue. In building a stronger department, where there are weaknesses, the Committee will be the first to indicate that these need to be strengthened. It is appreciated that the Minister always respects the Committee. It shows that the Minister understands what it is like to be on the other side in Parliament, as he has indeed been on that side before. The Minister and his team are leading by example by being accountable.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting.
 

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