The hon E Kholwane?
Chairperson, there was an addition to my initials - an S. It is supposed to be S E Kholwane. But that's okay. In relation to the annual report of the Government Communication and Information System, GCIS, the committee wants to express its appreciation to the leadership of that department for the manner in which they handle issues. In particular, I want to appreciate the work done by Mr Manyi, the CEO of the GCIS. Indeed, they have again managed to get an unqualified report.
However, there are issues which we want to raise, moving forward. One of those issues is that we think that the mandate for the Media Diversity and Development Agency, the MDDA, should be reviewed. This is part of our recommendation as the committee. This should be done in particular to ensure that they are given enough power to make sure that indeed the print media industry does transform as required. This is because as it is now, there is a limitation on what the MDDA can do in transforming that particular part of the industry.
Again, in the same vein, we want their mandate to be reviewed to also deal with the issue of the advertising industry, because we see the print media industry and the advertising industry as the industries that are still far behind in terms of the process of transformation.
However, we want to congratulate the former International Marketing Council, IMC, which is now called Brand South Africa, on work well done in terms of branding the country overseas and so on. We also want to commend the leadership of the GCIS which, immediately after the Auditor-General finished their audit processes, developed a programme to address issues raised by the Auditor-General. This programme must still be presented before the portfolio committee next week Tuesday. On that note, we want to recommend that the Report on the GCIS be adopted by the House. Thank you.
There was no debate.
Madam Chair, on behalf of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, I move:
That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.