Hon Chairperson, chairperson of the portfolio committee, Minister Collins Chabane, hon members, hon guests, students, educators, Government Communication and Information System, GCIS, International Marketing Council, IMC, and Media Development and Diversity Agency, MDDA, officials, friends and comrades, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, today I would like to focus on the critical component of our communication, which is direct communication at provincial and local government levels. I would also like to speak about the work we are doing in diversifying media at community level and the international marketing of our country's brand. As most of you are aware, the Government Communication and Information System has provincial offices in all nine provinces. These offices provide support to provincial departments and the Thusong Service Centres in various municipalities.
The centres, formerly known as multipurpose community centres, provide a critical service at the coalface of delivery to our people. The centres were initiated in 1999 as one of the primary vehicles for the implementation of development communication and information, as well as to integrate government services into primarily rural communities.
Government's vision for these centres is to provide every South African citizen with access to information and services within their place of residence and in each local municipality by 2014 with the purpose of improving the quality of their lives through integrated service delivery. To date there are 165 centres operational, making a crucial contribution to the expansion of infrastructure for access to information and services that citizens can use. This network of centres is complemented by over 40 joined- up mobile units.
Over the past year, GCIS has recorded servicing over five million South Africans through this extended network. To address the challenge of underreporting on statistics from centre managers, Gcis has managed to train 999 government employees who serve in these centres.
In April I visited the Manne Dipico Thusong Service Centre in the Northern Cape as part of service delivery monitoring and evaluation. I was impressed to observe that the centre was indeed bringing services closer to our people. Upon arrival I interacted with a number of officials, including the programme manager, who informed my delegation that the centre provides services to a minimum of 200 people a day.
Key services rendered at this particular centre include, amongst others, those from the Departments of Home Affairs, of Social Development and of Health, the Government Communication and Information System, as well as the local municipality.
During the visit I also observed that the centre is doing a great job in meeting the needs of the community. We must encourage the establishment of more centres such as these in all municipalities. This is a great example of how government departments can work together seamlessly and take services to the people.
As government, it is important to work together and co-operate with one another in all spheres of government, whether provincial, national or local, in order to make an impact and achieve results for the benefit of our people.
The Government Communication and Information System continues to strengthen provincial and local government communication by ensuring concrete communication initiatives for effective provincial and local government communication. This includes intensification of face-to-face and unmediated engagements with communities, localising national content and prioritising the local government turnaround strategy.
The Government Communication and Information System co-ordinated a communications approach and strategy for the recently held local government elections, which created awareness among citizens to exercise their democratic right to vote. This communication strategy was implemented by communicators at national, provincial and local levels.
The Government Communication and Information System remains cognisant of the lack of vigour with which municipalities are institutionalising their communication functions. This does not meet the communication demands locally, despite guidelines for communication in municipalities being adopted by the Special Presidential Co-ordinating Council in 2006. However, we will work hard to improve the situation.
The Government Communication and Information System partnered with ward councillors, traditional leaders and their accompanying structures, civil society, community-based organisations, organised formations of local business, religious groups, women, youth and the disabled in some of the remotest areas of the country. That was to collaborate towards putting in place systems and mechanisms to ensure that the public has consistent access to information on programmes, policies and opportunities. When we communicate effectively with our communities, we will be able to address issues and concerns, therefore minimising what we call service delivery protests.
Hon members, I would humbly like you to imagine this for a few seconds - each community has a ward councillor. If a councillor can visit each household, I believe that in five years we would know the challenges faced by each of those households. When we planned our service delivery and budgets we would be guided by true information received from our citizenry.
Concerning the Media Development and Diversity Agency, government remains committed to a strong and diverse media. This will support nation-building, as well as efforts to deepen, consolidate, defend and strengthen our democracy, social cohesion and good governance. This Parliament, in recognising the exclusion and marginalisation of disadvantaged communities and persons from access to the media and the media industry, resolved to establish the Media Development and Diversity Agency.
The MDDA is an agency created in terms of the Media Development and Diversity Agency Act, Act 14 of 2002, in partnership with the major print and broadcasting media industry. It helped to create an enabling environment for media development and diversity that is conducive to public discourse and reflects the needs and aspirations of all South Africans.
The Government Communication Information System, through the MDDA, will continue to push for the transformation of the media in South Africa. The MDDA has recorded successes which include providing support to more than 343 media projects across South Africa. It focuses on historically disadvantaged communities which use indigenous languages. This was done with the budget allocation of R128,8 million accumulated since 2004.
Since its inception, the agency has trained over 1 300 people. It provided 143 bursaries to different radio and print media students. It also created approximately 200 direct and indirect job opportunities through beneficiary projects which empowered more people with skills. Those skills enabled them to participate in the broader media and broadcasting industry.
In sustaining beneficiaries, the MDDA held seminars promoting media literacy and the culture of reading. In addition, the MDDA also conducted workshops on its advertising and marketing toolkit. And that was to develop the marketing plans of beneficiaries in order to empower them to access available advertising revenue in their areas.
In addressing capacity challenges, the MDDA also held training sessions with its beneficiaries on financial management, compliance with funding agreements and other core competencies to ensure effective and efficient use of funds transferred by the agency.
Future plans for the MDDA include the following: continued support to at least one community radio, one community media and magazine, one commercial newspaper and magazine at each district municipality. Further, the agency plans to support at least one community television station in each province.
The MDDA plans to conduct a study on the social impact of the community radio, which will assist in better understanding the value of this media and the need to continue supporting it. There will be increased focus on the media transformation discourse which includes media diversity, ownership and control, and elimination of gender discrimination in the media. It will promote gender equality and promote all languages, with particular reference to indigenous languages. It will also promote access to information by all, improvement in respect of child-friendly content and other key dynamics.
The agency will also look at media accountability mechanisms that complement and strengthen self-regulation, enhance media credibility and accountability, discourage irresponsible reporting, promote high standards in the media, encourage professionalism and strengthen our democracy.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce two groups of learners that have joined us this morning. The Moeketsi Graves Senior Secondary School in Matatiele, Eastern Cape and the Zisize Educational Trust in Ingwavuma, KwaZulu-Natal. They have been invited so that they can have a better understanding of the role and processes of Parliament. [Applause.] Thank you for coming.
We seek to create an exchange learning platform for the learners and educators to share their media literacy project with parliamentarians. The media literacy programme targets learners and seeks to create media awareness and consciousness through bringing the media to the classrooms. It offers an opportunity for young people to learn critical consumption of the media and to raise their awareness of the role of the media in a democratic society.
The Moeketsi Graves Senior Secondary School participated in the media literacy and training project conducted by the MDDA, in which 5 schools with 10 learners each and educators participated. The launch of the project was done at the council chambers at the Alfred Nzo District Municipality. It was attended by politicians, and amongst them was the Deputy Minister of Basic Education, media owners, editors and the learners. After training, this group produced a newsletter cover page which beat the other five schools and was supported by the MDDA to participate at the Highway Africa Conference in Grahamstown in 2009.
The Zisize Educational Trust at Ingwavuma is one of the MDDA funded projects which empowers learners at the Abaqophi Children's Radio Project to produce radio programmes in different genres and broadcast the same through the local community radio station - Maputaland Community Radio. In 2009, the group from Ingwavuma was awarded the Unicef International Children's Day of Broadcasting Awards for the Abaqophi Children's Radio Project.
I now turn to the work of the International Marketing Council. Given the resounding success of hosting the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, the first on African soil, last week the IMC met with President Jacob Zuma. And it was proposed and agreed in principle that the organisation's name be changed from International Marketing Council to Brand South Africa. This will be tabled at the Cabinet meeting in July.
The name change is to make clear what the IMC does, which is to internally market and manage perceptions of South Africa globally. The government fully supports the IMC in its role as a custodian of our country's brand.
The IMC's job is to work with and through stakeholders to attract investment and enhance trade in ways that will stimulate employment and grow our economy. The mobility of capital and talent in the global economy makes it imperative for nations to manage their reputations effectively.
Our successful second term for a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council, our inclusion in the Brazil, Russia, India and China, known as the Brics bloc, as well as various other key international developments would not have been possible without the contributions of Brand South Africa. In the mandate to build South Africa's brand reputation in order to improve South Africa's global competitiveness, the IMC remains key as the country repositions itself locally and internationally.
In observing the Cabinet-endorsed call for better co-ordination and adherence to protocols and procedures during international engagements, the GCIS is in the process of finalising draft guidelines for international engagements that will ensure a more composite communication approach to international engagements.
It will also place development at the epicentre of the international developmental agenda, where South Africans will be kept informed about how the international agenda contributes towards the attainment of domestic priorities. Presentation is as important as substance, because people are able to access information and form perceptions in seconds as they Google a particular issue or location.
These perceptions soon drive the way people take serious decisions about places they have never visited or people they have never met and even influence investment by foreign companies and influential people. In the end, perception and reality become two sides of the same coin!
South Africa remains ranked as the most competitive country in Sub-Saharan Africa in the World Economic Forums and Global Competitiveness Index. [Time expired.] [Applause.]