Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, colleagues and other dignitaries, as stated on behalf of Cope during the budget deliberations in the portfolio committee, the core skills and competency levels of executive officials in the Government Communication and Information System are exemplary. There is little doubt that they have the capacity to execute their strategic plan efficiently. Similarly, the Media Development and Diversity Agency is one of the most efficiently managed government agencies.
However, its chief executive officer and the department's chief executive officer are a lethal combination when it comes to a potential risk to media freedom in the country. Consequently, the opposition needs to remain vigilant as far as their pronouncements and plans are concerned, particularly if the hon Kholwane gets his way.
While the department consumes a relatively small portion of the total Budget, its role is of strategic importance to ensure effective and credible communication with and information to both domestic and international audiences.
Perceptions of today become the realities of tomorrow. The department has the daunting challenge of managing public perception on incidents and a wide range of issues, whether positive or negative. Its successes or failures impact directly on local and international perceptions of South Africa as a country, a democracy, an investment destination, a people and an economy. The social and economic implications thereof cannot be underestimated.
The GCIS is, however, burdened with a further and perhaps more daunting challenge - the challenge of credibility, which means to be recognised as an objective, transparent and reliable source of information. More plainly put, the challenge is not to allow itself to become a propaganda machine that pumps up good news beyond proportion and covers up for government failures, as my hon colleague the previous speaker has stated.
Chairperson, a classic example of a government communication blunder, as well as wastage, was the SA National Roads Agency Limited communication campaign of 2009. On 17 June 2009, in the debate on this very Vote, I questioned the value and content of an expensive and extended advertising and communication blitz by Sanral.
Night after night, channel after channel, newspaper after newspaper, advertisements informed the public about the role of Sanral and how their activities would benefit road users. The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project was also featured prominently during the 2009 election campaign by the ANC. [Interjections.]
In 2009, I questioned the need to spend millions on advertising a state agency - essentially, singing its praises together with that of the department. After the e-toll fiasco, with serious implications for Sanral and government, the 2009 advertising campaign proved to have been fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Excessive amounts were spent on a campaign that lacked the most important components: honesty and credibility. It failed to disclose or explain who would be paying for these beautiful new roads in Gauteng and who would benefit from and be enriched by the toll collection system.
The financial and economic disaster now faced as a result of the e-toll fiasco will be a challenge for the GCIS. Sanral's good name and reputation, and perhaps also that of South Africa as an international investment destination, will be very difficult to rebuild and will take much more than another slick, expensive state communication campaign.
A second aspect, Chairperson, is the potential risk of abuse of the GCIS to advance political careers and the ANC. This could be as dangerous as the abuse of state or police intelligence in factional politics. Both have been abused in the past and can be abused again if not vigorously guarded against by the professional conduct of officials and through vigorous political and media oversight.
I therefore caution the department to brace itself during the year ahead. The GCIS professionals should fiercely resist attempts by leading lights in government to get them to polish their marbles on the road to Mangaung. It would be naive to think that there will not be attempts to control and manipulate communication services to advance personal popularity. [Interjections.]
This brings me to another potential pitfall for the GCIS - spending an advertising budget of millions of rands through an in-house agency that would negotiate special deals with media houses, including outdoor advertising companies. Will it be to maximise public resources, or will it perhaps be to arrange for advance trade-offs for discounts and freebie election billboards in future? The jury remains out on this.
In the Minister's response to a question on the R10 million state of the nation address marketing campaign, it was revealed that a third of the state of the nation address marketing expenses were made up of billboard ads, also in rural areas, whereas the state of the nation address was televised live on SABC. Surely it would have made sense to spend those monies on radio and television advertisements rather than on outdoor billboards. People without television access could obviously not follow the proceedings live on SABC, so why spend millions to show them what they are going to miss out on?
Chairperson, the Minister and the head of department should note that Cope will continue carefully to scrutinise the programmes and activities of the GCIS. [Interjections.] Basic values and principles enshrined in the Constitution should govern the public sector, and this is also true for the