PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND EVALUATION AS WELL AS ADMINISTRATION IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, I hope I will be one of those who will adhere to your request.
Chairperson, hon members, honoured guests, management of the GCIS, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, it is both an honour and a privilege for me to address this House on the occasion of the tabling of the budget of the Government Communication and Information System.
This Budget debate is taking place against the background of excitement and a positive mood in the country due to the successful general elections that saw millions of South Africans participating in the fourth general elections, and the hosting of both the Fifa Confederations Cup and the British Lions Tour. This positive mood means that we have a wonderful opportunity as a country to unite South Africans at a time when they are feeling positive about their country.
This debate is also taking place just a day after the country celebrated Youth Day. This day, 16 June, is an important day on our calendar as we remember the scores of young people who were killed by the security machinery of the apartheid state. Their crime was simply to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools across the country. On this occasion of the GCIS Budget Vote debate we remember not only those who lost their lives, but also those who decided to go into exile to continue the fight against apartheid as the situation in the country had become unbearable.
This institution passed the very laws that made life unbearable for the majority of South Africans, particularly black women, youth and workers of all races, especially African workers. It is therefore appropriate that I have decided to dedicate my speech in this House to all those who lost their lives during the uprising that began in 1976.
At that time, the youth protested about the compulsory use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools. This recollection reminds us how important it is for citizens to have access to information in a medium and form that is accessible and that they can understand. A denial of access to information is a denial of a fundamental human right and the power to better one's life and contribute to society.
In its 11 years of existence, the GCIS has gone a long way towards creating a communication system that serves the people, as enshrined in our Constitution. We have proceeded from the understanding that without information, there can be no popular participation; without popular participation, there can be no lasting legitimacy or transformation of our society. Without the means to access information and to communicate their own activities, ideas and opinions, citizens become hapless observers subject to the world they find themselves in. An uninformed citizenry undermines our objectives to transform society.
Good communication lies at the heart of success in the fast-moving global world we live in. It lies at the heart of development and delivery. Communication in our context must enable people to be their own liberators, to take control of their lives and to participate in governance. It must foster partnerships leading to a better life for all. In this way communication contributes to the transformation of the country and its people. It contributes to fulfilling the overwhelming government mandate for economic growth, social equality and the fulfilment of human potential.
Such communication is based on the notion of dialogue. We need to communicate our successes in improving the quality of life of our people. We need to ensure that the citizenry understand their rights and responsibilities, and know how to access services and opportunities. In turn, we need to listen to the challenges the people face, hear about the blockages to service delivery, and use this to make informed decisions about public policy and delivery. This understanding of communication has made us determined to place communication at the centre of government's work, and not as an add-on or afterthought.
The larger issue behind the GCIS Budget Vote debate, after the presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Communications, is to assess our progress in achieving the vision of developmental and transformative communication, and what more we can do as government and as Parliament. We should also ask media and communications in all sectors to reflect on how they contribute to our collective agenda to transform the lives of the people. To what extent are we co-operating to ensure that those who are disadvantaged know about the opportunities that democracy has brought, and are then able to take advantage of them?
This Budget Vote debate is also taking place against the background of 15 years of a stable democracy that had started a firm fight against poverty. However, we are cognisant of the prevailing economic crisis that is affecting the world economy. We are equally aware that such conditions may have an impact on our ability to fulfil the mandate given to us by millions of those who still have confidence and deep trust in our policies and programmes.
The core mandate of government communications is to meet the communication and information needs of government and the public, and to provide strategic leadership to all our government communications. Our mandate enjoins us to consistently ensure that the public access information on programmes, policies and opportunities so that they can actively participate in the transformation agenda for a better life for all.
The GCIS provides strategic leadership and co-ordinates the government communication system to fulfil this mandate. The GCIS also ensures that South Africa is marketed abroad through the International Marketing Council, in partnership with other state agencies such as the Department for International Relations and Co-operation, South African Tourism and Trade Investment South Africa. It oversees the Media Development and Diversity Agency, whose mandate is to ensure development of media diversity in the country.
We turn now to the detail of what the GCIS is doing to fulfil its mandate and the mandate of government from our people. The GCIS has concluded the review of the government-wide communication system, which coincides with the GCIS's tenth anniversary.
The review identified a number of achievements in the government communication system. It found that the GCIS had established effective co- ordinating forums to promote coherent and common messages across government, and that our government communication system has features that can catapult our country onto a plateau for strategic, disciplined and coherent communication.
While recommendations from the review require consultation and approval by Cabinet, some have no far-reaching implications and the GCIS has commenced implementation. The review challenged the GCIS to ensure better strategic support to the government-wide communication system, including effective government communication across the three spheres. In the coming period, attention will be given to establishing well-functioning government communication units for all the various departments, with special focus on the newly established departments. In the coming weeks, as indicated at the induction of new Ministers, training interventions to strengthen the skills of government communicators will be conducted.
Working with the various directors-general, the GCIS will ensure that policy guidelines and scorecards to guide government communication are approved and implemented. The GCIS will ensure that communication is implemented along the government's strategic priorities identified in the state of the nation address, informed by the renewed mandate. Among these will be the communication of key programmes to build on the economy and create jobs to address the education challenges and to focus on rural development and sustainable livelihoods.
The socioeconomic profile of the South African population implies that reliance on conventional methods of communication is not adequate to engage many of our people. It is critical to utilise innovative and appropriate ways to reach the information-deprived society. Ensuring that information reaches all citizens is one of the key challenges we face. We emphasised socioeconomic development channels to reach the marginalised and direct dialogue, especially with people in disadvantaged areas. When the GCIS was established 11 years ago the task was to work with the provinces to complete a model for provincial communication structures. Today we have a system that integrates provincial government and, working with the provincial communication units, we will strengthen the local sphere of government that is vital for service delivery, community participation and development.
Through the provincial communications units, a network of communicators, including community workers, ward committees and eminent community members, is central in disseminating communication on programmes of government. To date, 15 new Thusong Service Centres have been established, bringing the total number of operational centres to 137 countrywide by the end of March 2009. These one-stop centres bring government services to the people. Typically they include the Departments of Home Affairs, Labour, Social Development and Health; the GCIS; the SA Social Security Agency, as well as telecentres; the SA Post Office; libraries; agricultural extension offices; municipal services; and community development workers. The programme to create a centre in each district by 2014 will continue in the next financial year. I must hasten to say that we are aware of the challenges in these centres and are working together with key stakeholders to find solutions to these, including long-term appropriate locations for the Thusong centres.
In an effort to enhance unmediated communication, the izimbizo programme remains a unique approach to ensure that our messages reach the public unpolluted. It is one platform, among many, that we will continue to use. Research has shown that direct interaction with communities is seen as the most valuable by citizens. The GCIS will make sure that izimbizo platforms are used creatively as part of the government's participatory democracy platforms to build and strengthen strategic sectoral and general community partnerships.
We know that more often than not, communities have solutions to their problems, because they know better the challenges that are rife in their neighbourhoods. During this period, the GCIS will work to ensure that government mobilises forums of academics, opinion makers, nongovernmental and community-based organisations, to build a shared vision for our country. Our focus on direct engagement with communities where they live will continue to be a priority. In particular, there will be a focus on reaching rural communities in support of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme.
We have also ensured that interactive communication is accompanied by a multimedia approach to communication, using products and platforms that meet the needs and preferences of various sectors of the population. The mass campaign to popularise government's Programme of Action for 2009 is using all official languages, including Braille; it will include a comic book publication with a wide reach, especially amongst the poor, and a series of radio dramas in all official languages.
The government magazine Vuk'uzenzele was established in 2006 to provide government information to those in need. In the last financial year there was a print run of about 1,6 million on a two-monthly basis - but demand far outstrips supply. As a result, the print run has been increased to 1,8 million per issue. The Braille version of Vuk'uzenzele provides information to the visually impaired.
Over and above this, Vuk'uzenzele has carried true stories of people who have benefited from programmes targeting the economically marginalised communities, those in the second economy trap, with much focus on an inclusive economy. The GCIS will sustain this platform and channel its content through the public service African language stations to reach more and more people who must take up these opportunities.
We live in an age of extremely rapid changes to communications, enabled in part by developments in information and communication technologies. The GCIS has begun harnessing cellular phones as a platform with tremendous reach across the population. MXit was used to profile the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign. MXit is a free instant messaging programme for cellphones and personal computers. The 16 Days splash screen on MXit was delivered to 2,8 million users during the campaign and some 6 million text messages were broadcast.
Government website usage statistics increased from 17,8 million in 2007-08 to 20,8 million during 2008-09. Usage statistics for the government services website totalled 4,78 million in 2008-09, compared to 4,47 million in 2007-08.
The GCIS will continue to improve communication techniques, tools and methods based on scientific research - critical to improving the communication landscape for ease of access to government programmes and policies. Emphasis will be placed on delivering integrated, easily- accessible information in the languages and channels most preferred by the public, and especially the marginalised.
These, then, hon members, are some of the ways in which the GCIS has, during the past year, sought to expand public access to government information. Research indicates that these efforts have had impact, and that the proportion of the public who feel that they are receiving enough information from government has significantly increased. Nevertheless, that proportion is still too low and it is the poorest amongst those most in need of such information.
It is gratifying to record progress in the efforts to make information about opportunities more accessible. But welcome as this is, it needs to be multiplied many times over to meet the public need. As in all crucial initiatives to transform our country, government cannot on its own bring about what must be done. To succeed, government must work with the private sector and civil society groupings in their various forms. Government regards the media as an extremely important institution and a partner in ensuring that citizens have the greatest access possible to information.
This government is committed to transparency. Cabinet communicates its decisions after every meeting through the GCIS to keep the public up to date about the decisions of the executive. The regular media briefings on the implementation of the Programme of Action and the updating of the progress online provide the public with factual information on the basis of which analysis and assessment of government progress can be made.
Usage of BuaNews - government's news agency - by community and some national media continues to grow. Internationally, stories were used in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, South East Asia, India and Pakistan, among other countries. This translates into nine agreements signed with agencies that continue to use BuaNews as a source of news from South Africa. We are the first to admit that a lot more still needs to be done. The GCIS will continue to give support to Cabinet in its interaction with the SA National Editors Forum to ensure media has access to Cabinet as the highest policy decision-making body of government. Work will continue in reducing levels of antagonism between government and some media houses by building better relations and engaging journalists on government programmes and policies aimed at building a country that belongs to all. The Media Diversity and Development Agency, MDDA, continues to play a vital role in fostering diversity and development within the media and communication landscape, supported by the GCIS and the broadcast, print and electronic media houses.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contributions made by the MDDA CEO, Mr Lumko Mtimde, Ms Gugu Msibi and her board, as well as the MDDA staff. The MDDA was able to report to the portfolio committee before this debate that it continues to fulfil its regulatory obligations as stipulated in the Act. It has disbursed all the funds received from government and has signed funding agreements with print and electronic media. Appreciation is due to these partners in that it has to date approved support for 239 projects in community media and small commercial media across all provinces, and it will now work on its international funding strategy by tapping into the expertise of former members of the board.
Similarly, during the coming period, more attention will be paid to building communication partnerships with communicators in state-owned enterprises and community forums that have the expertise to enhance government communications to promote a better life that is understood, witnessed, believed and lived by all South Africans.
As we deliberate on the GCIS budget, South Africa is hosting the Fifa Confederations Cup, the British Lions Tour and participating in the ICC Twenty20 Tournament in the UK. These sports events are positioning South Africa as one of the top sporting nations around the world ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. These events offer an opportunity of a lifetime to market the country, build national pride, unite South Africans and foster African solidarity.
As part of the communication partnership, the GCIS continues to ensure integration and implementation of communication for 2010, working with all key stakeholders in government and other sectors, and with the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee the GCIS will continue to lead and anchor communication for this prestigious tournament. Fundamental to this will be building on the collaboration of communication experts in all sectors via the 2010 National Communication Partnership, a voluntary public-private partnership. We live in a globalised world where an event in a community in South Africa can become an international story in hours.