Chairperson, hon Minister, despite a relatively small budget, the strategic importance of this Budget Vote should not be underestimated if we are serious about expanding access to knowledge, information and economic empowerment. Key state-owned entities, SOEs, are overseen by the Department of Communications, which could have a major impact on the lives of all South Africans.
However, if the Minister fails to turn the Department of Communications into a proactive and vigilant department, he will fail our nation and, in particular, the poorest of the poor, unless the ANC fears that an educationally liberated and informed electorate is not so easy to mislead during elections and it is their deliberate strategy to retain a large section of our nation uneducated, uninformed and unemployed.
The challenges facing some of the SOEs demand visionary leadership to ensure that we regain our position as an information and communication technology, ICT, leader in Africa and among developing countries - a position which we held in the early 1990s.
As far as the South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, is concerned, Cope wants the SABC to make us proud during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, and we want them to be successful so that all of us can experience the magic of the Soccer World Cup. This exciting event is critical for our nation and for nation-building. We wish them well, but we also need to plan beyond. That is why Cope is happy with the input by the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Mr Ismail Vadi.
It is imperative for the new SABC board to manage the finances of the corporation with circumspect and to root out corrupt practices and conflicts of interest. It is not good enough to have a register of people who say they have no conflict of interest or to just declare their conflict of interest. We need to make it impossible for people in public office to conduct business with the public sector. We need to root out that practice.
The public will not forget the scandalous abuse of power and of public resources by some in the SABC senior management. The deafening silence on the outcome of investigations into gross missmanagement and prima facie criminal conduct of senior management members is disturbing.
We, therefore, welcome the approach of the chairperson, and we will ensure that we assist in the process to get to the truth. South Africans want to know what went wrong there and why government had to bail them out.
We will also closely evaluate the public broadcaster's commitment to editorial independence. We are looking forward to deliberations on the Public Service Broadcasting Bill. We will never accept a public broadcaster that becomes the de facto propaganda arm of the ruling party.
As far as Sentech is concerned, we are dissatisfied with what appears to have been a lack of transparency and a lack of inclusive approach in the steps that the Minister has taken. As hon Vadi has indicated, the committee did not even have the full report before it. Cope wants to say that the practice of cadre deployment has failed. We hope that this was not another cadre deployment exercise of the ANC. Those who are guilty of the mismanagement and embezzlement of public funds should be charged, not just redeployed to another SOE or another department.
As far as the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa, is concerned, the regulator has consistently been criticised for failure to exercise its mandate. Why did the Department of Communications and Parliament not enforce a performance management system to monitor the efficacy of the regulator before? It is only since last year's elections that we see some active steps. [Interjections.]