Chairperson, Minister in the Presidency: Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration, and your Deputy, leaders from both the Media Development and Diversity Agency, MDDA, and the International Marketing Council, IMC, the CEO of the Government Communication and Information System, GCIS, Mr Manyi, and your staff, hon Members of Parliament, colleagues, comrades and friends, the ANC-led government has recognised that freedom of expression is an entrenched tenet of our new democratic society. But it has done so within the context of a society with an inheritance of severe deprivation with regard to information and dialogue with their government.
We are also mindful that many of the progressive and democratic principles of our Constitution can only be effectively implemented when we have active organisation and participation of all our people.
The ANC takes as its starting point the Freedom Charter clause which says, "the people shall govern". Democracy is more than electing public representatives once every five years; it is all about the participation of our people in decision-making in all processes, which ultimately change their lives.
The vision of the Government Communication and Information System is government communication that empowers and encourages citizens to participate in democracy and improves their lives to achieve their aspirations.
The Government Communication and Information System remains central in developing communication strategies and programmes for government's transversal campaigns and co-ordination of cross-cutting projects driven by it on behalf of other departments. These cross-cutting communication programmes include specific campaigns and events to develop departmental communication structures.
Hon Minister, yesterday when you introduced the budget, there was an indication that the GCIS will be approached in taking forward the campaign of making our people aware that they must Rica before the end of June. We are reliably told that currently we have over 10 million South Africans with cellphones that have not been Rica'ed. So, if you are part of those, you must make sure that after today you go straight to one of the outlets and Rica, because at the end of June you will be disconnected. I hope you have done so, Minister and Deputy Minister.
Concentration of ownership and control remains a matter of concern for all governments. In the case of the media, there is an additional concern; lack of diversity allows for control of information and opinion. Hence media diversity remains vital to our democracy.
The research conducted by the MDDA reveals that in our country the situation has not changed much. The question we must ask ourselves is: Have we done enough to deal with the legacy of monopolistic control, particularly in the area of distribution and printing? If the answer is negative, the question is: What needs to be done to deal with this legacy?
At the Caledon Colloquium in October 1996, the breaking down of the newspaper distribution monopoly was welcomed. It was also felt that there was a need to regulate the mass distributors of newspapers so that they would be able to give access to the up and coming people who want to participate in newspapers. That was in 1996. This was going to enable smaller and emerging newspapers to be dealt with fairly and equitably by these distributors.
A case in point is in the Eastern Cape, where one of the small newspapers was forced to have their newspapers printed in Durban, because they couldn't afford the prices charged by the dominating newspaper in that region. I cannot mention its name, but it is a dominating newspaper in the Eastern Cape.
The ANC in its discussions has already taken a view that nothing much has changed as confirmed by this research. We hold the view that there should be at least a process whereby the Competition Commission enquiry can come into this space to investigate whether there is no anti-competitive behaviour in the print media value chain.
Hon members, the MDDA, as we know, has been doing very well. Over the past year it has funded close to 400 different community media projects. I will not mention all of them, but it amounts to R153 million. The projects' vision of realising a dream of documenting the everyday lives of communities while creating emerging media entrepreneurs at community level includes the Ziwaphi newspaper in Mpumalanga. I can only talk about that one because yesterday there was a lot of talk about the North West.
However, I must also mention that there is a community development for children which is found in KwaZulu-Natal at Ngwavuma, Nondaba. We want to congratulate the MDDA on the fact that, to this end, it has been getting unqualified audited financial statements for the past six years. However, in our conference we reaffirmed the need to accelerate the roll- out of community radio stations to reach a target of one per district, the target at which the MDDA is doing very well.
The budget presented by the MDDA before the committee indicates a decline in the voluntary contribution by the print media. The call by the movement of the people, the ANC, that there should be a substantial increase in the funding of the MDDA to fulfil its strategic task remains key, particularly at the point when people decide to reduce their contribution to funding the media.
The current funding model of the MDDA limits the potential of the MDDA to execute its mandate. It is perhaps time for us to engage in robust discussion with both the print media and the broadcasting industry to this effect.
Our engagement should focus on what needs to be done by government, the print media and the broadcasters. Must we change the funding model for the MDDA? Is the voluntary contribution working or must we go to mandatory contribution by the print media, and look at the possibility of government funding MDDA projects? The Media Development and Diversity Agency will be presenting the findings of their research to the committee, with recommendations on what needs to be done as a way forward. It is very important to take this opportunity to remind those who hold the licence for community radio and broadcasting that they do so on behalf of the communities.
When we go out during oversight work we find communities where they don't even know that that licence existed, but that licence was issued under the community radio. Those individuals privatise those licences and we must remind them that they hold those licences on behalf of the communities and nothing else.
The communities have got a right to participate and have a say in how those community radio stations should be run. And general meetings should be called accordingly so that they comply with the requirements of those licences. Otherwise, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa, might be forced to withdraw some of those licences so that such people should apply for commercial licences other than the community ones.
We noted that the progress made by the department on the issue of Thusong centres is on course. However, we are also aware of the challenges, that part of the problem is that Thusong centres have now become service points.
Departments are battling in terms of how to staff those service points in order to be able to provide our people with the services. But we hope that we will continue, hon Minister, to engage them and make sure that those centres become active amongst our people.
The committee has noted that there is a Cabinet decision which requires centralisation of advertising budgets allocated to various departments. Notwithstanding what you say, Minister, we must state that we are disappointed that the Cabinet decision has not been implemented by most departments. To this end, we urgently request departments to implement this Cabinet decision as soon as possible and have progress reports with regard to how far departments are co-operating with the centralisation of the advertising budget.
On the same note, we also urge government across all spheres to start the discussions regarding the means and ways of apportioning part of their adspend to the community media. This process should be spearheaded by the GCIS. We cannot say that government uses community radio or community media, for government does not do so. Government must lead by example. We must use those community media so that private care centres would also follow suit.
The committee, in November 2002, held public hearings in relation to the transformation of the advertising industry. Undertakings were made by the advertising industry in relation to transformation. However, to date, when we do oversight, there are still a lot of complaints emanating from the behaviour of advertising industry.
To this effect we are calling on the advertising industry appearing before the committee during this month to come and tell us how far they are in transforming the industry. It cannot be correct that advertisements can only be apportioned or be directed to the main media to the disadvantage of the community media - that cannot be correct. They should be able to indicate to us what steps they are going to take to ensure that there will be enough for everyone to have a slice.
The committee was generally satisfied with the GCIS Strategic Plan and its entities. To this end, the committee recommends that the GCIS should be given more power and authority over government spokespersons in order to intervene when necessary. Heads of communications and spokespersons of government departments should be allowed to attend high-level departmental meetings in order to speak from an informed perspective and with authority.
Attendance of the Government Communicators' Forum must be attached to the performance agreement of all government communications personnel. Speeding up the process of appointing a service provider for the communications curriculum is urgent.
The committee also recommends that the MDDA and the regulator, Icasa, should urgently attend to the issue of tariffs. We are told when we conduct oversight that some of the community radio signals have been cut off because they cannot afford to pay their developmental centres.
The Electronic Communications Act makes provision for differentiation between community media with community, etc, so that the rates and the tariffs are accordingly determined, but that is not done. We urge the MDDA and Icasa to attend to that particular matter.
In closing, the committee acknowledges the work done by the IMC in terms of branding and marketing the country, and the spirit of oneness, unity in diversity shown during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.
Of course, the ANC will support this Budget Vote. [Applause.]