Minister on Establishment of Department of Communications & SABC Production & Advisory Board; MDDA Board: recommended candidates

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed the Minister and Deputy Minister of Communication and their delegates.

Committee Report: Media Development and Diversity Agency Board recommended candidates
The Chairperson commented that the President had informed the National Assembly that since Jim Manyi is already a MDDA Board Member in terms of Section 4(1)(c) of MDDA Act 14 of 2002, he is unable to appoint Mr Manyi in terms of section 4(1)(b) of the Act. The President had requested the National Assembly to commence with a process of recommending a candidate in accordance with the principle set out in section 4(1)(b) of the Act to fill the board vacancy.

The Chairperson noted that the subcommittee had received 20 nominations for candidates and had short-listed five. The interviews were scheduled to take place on 17 November 2014.

Mr G Davis (DA) said the copy of the notice must be circulated to Members. It was difficult to accept the report without having a chance to read it in advance. It was not clear what the notice said about Jimi Manyi. The DA would like to raise its objection to Adv Lufuno Tokyo Nevondwe.

The Chairperson said the notice was to be circulated to Members. She did not see a reason why a Member could raise an objection to one of the candidates.

Mr M Kalako (ANC) said this tendency of DA was unfortunate. When Mr Davis raised the objection against Adv Nevondwe, the Committee agreed that it could not depend entirely on the research of Mr Davis. He can raise those objections during the interviews.

Mr Davis said it was not right to include Lufuno Nevondwe who allegedly misrepresented his academic publishing record. It also means that somebody was robbed of being on the short list and due diligence must be done in the short-listing process. The DA was not happy with the shortlist and investigations must be done on the academic publications.

Mr Kalako moved for the adoption of the report, seconded by Mr M Kekana (ANC).

Establishment of the Department of Communications
Ms Faith Muthambi, Minister of Communications, thanked the Committee on the opportunity to brief the Committee on the establishment of the Department. It was common knowledge that since the establishment of Department of Communications, it consists of        Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), Brand South Africa (Brand SA), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), Film and Publication Board (FPB), and the Government Communication and Information System. She has appointed Mr Donald Liphoko as Acting Director General who would present the national macro organisation of the state (NMOS).

Mr Donald Liphoko, Acting Director General, Department of Communications, said the Department of Communications was established following the President’s pronouncement in May 2014. Proclamation 43 of 8 July 2014 was issued by the President to amend Schedule 1 of the Public Service Act to establish new and renamed departments. Proclamation 47 of 15 July 2014 was also issued transferring the administration of legislation and entities from one Minister to another in terms of Section 197 of the Constitution. The Department of Communications was thus established comprising the former Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) with the following entities reporting to it:
- Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)
- Brand South Africa (Brand SA)
- South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
- Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA)
- Film and Publication Board (FPB

The following Legislation has been assigned to the Minister of Communications:
- Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act (No13 of 2000)
- Broadcasting Act (No 4 of 1999)
- Films and Publications Act (No 63 of 1996)
- Media Development and Diversity Agency Act (No 14 of 2002).

An NMOS Steering Committee was set up to oversee the smooth configuration and establishment of new departments. The Committee was chaired by the Director General (DG) in the Presidency and comprised the Directors General of the affected departments, Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), National Treasury, GCIS and the Department of Public Works. The DPSA was tasked to coordinate the technical part of the work and to chair the National Project Team which met bi-weekly. National Treasury and the DPSA provided the required guides and templates in the rollout of the project including direct support on the transfer of legislative functions and the development of high level organisational structures. With the assistance of the DPSA the DoC produced a start-up organisational structure. The start-up structure took over the functions of GCIS and added one Branch called Policy and Entity Oversight which would enable the Department to exercise oversight over ICASA, SABC, MDDA, Brand SA and Films and Publications Board. The start-up structure was approved by the Minister for Public Service and Administration on 19 September 2014 after determining the transfer of GCIS functions to the new Department of Communications.

The two departments of DoC and DTPS have met twice at a ministerial level coordinated by the Presidency to address the transfer of legislative functions. The meetings have not yet produced the required results and the Presidency will be making the required intervention to resolve this matter. A new proclamation was being considered by the Presidency on this. DoC has requested engagement with DTPS on what could be considered for transfer while waiting for the proclamation.  No specific systems will be transferred from DPTS to DoC. DoC will take over the doc.gov.za URL after November 2014 as DTPS is using the URL for routing their old emails. There were funding challenges for providing offices for the Ministry. Treasury did not provide the funds and as such we are looking into our budget to find money for this purpose. It was scraping for funds for the vehicles of the Ministry as these were not provided for and reprioritising funds to cater for the Ministry’s programmes as they are not funded for this current financial year. The Minister has been assigned more responsibilities by the President which goes beyond the current budget allocated to the GCIS. National Treasury has cut the baseline allocation of what used to be GCIS. The new Department includes what used to be GCIS but with an additional branch: Policy and Entity Oversight. The cutting of the budget will affect both employment of additional staff for the new mandates and operational requirements. The Committee was invited to help DoC lobby for adequate funding from Treasury

Discussion
Mr Davis said it appeared as if there were differences of opinion between DoC and DTPS on what should be transferred and what should not. He asked what were the sticking points between the two departments, what the required results were expected between the meeting of DoC and DTPS and what intervention was required by the Presidency. He asked the basis of the new proclamation being considered by the Presidency.

Mr M Ndlozi (EFF) asked how much was the reconfiguration cost and what was the expected cost of the new DoC so that the Committee can lobby National Treasury.

Mr Kalako asked if DoC had any time frames for when the new proclamation will be issued. The presentation seemed to be pointing to a problem of interpretation of the proclamation by DTPS and DoC. He asked if there was any problem created by official bureaucracy as this affects the budget and transfer of equipment. Officials like power for the sake of power. The two Ministers should have sat down, got legal advice and gone through the proclamation and then instructed their officials, and not have the officials trying to lobby the division of functions. The Committee must support the Minister inpressuring Treasury for the budget. How does the Minister work without a budget and how are they expected to perform their duty? Cars were not a priority; there were many government cars still in good condition.

The Chairperson said she was not convinced that National Treasury was ‘not involved’ in the strategic planning session of the steering committee. The DoC will be called some other time to explain the migration of GCIS. She asked if DoC had ICT infrastructure in place as it was an area in which government was lacking and was also identified by the Auditor General as a risk area. The Committee might need to have a session with the two Ministers on the progress made and their understanding of the division.

Mr Liphoko replied that staff migration was in hand and DoC was collaborating well with the unions. DoC had a working relationship with the labour unions and the whole transition process was very transparent. GCIS had a high standard of ICT infrastructure system and the support GCIS had was transferred to DoC. The previous department was set up in such a way that ICT systems were at the core of the Department. It had support from head office, had dedicated staff that ensured that all assets including the operations of Thusong service centres were adequately covered by ICT infrastructure.

Mr Norman Munzhelele, Acting Deputy Director General in Minister’s Office, DoC, said the DoC had to ensure availability of infrastructure especially to support the broadcasting industry under the Minister of Communications. It has to ensure that infrastructure was available both for transmission and community broadcasting as well as infrastructure to support content development. Content development in South Africa had been skewed towards urban areas particularly Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. If this has to be changed, relevant ICT infrastructure has to be created in provinces. There was need to ensure there was infrastructure for the people to receive digital signal. There were areas that needed continued collaboration with DTPS as it was the one running the broadband programme. FPB performs an important function with regards to content regulation and requires certain technology to ensure that people were not exposed to harmful content and that the cyberspace was secure. ICASA to do its work has to invest in technology to ensure how frequency was being used, and what equipment gets into South Africa so that it does not cause harmful interference within the Republic.

Mr Johannes Rantete, Ministerial Support, said DoC and DTPS had been engaged in discussions facilitated by the Presidency to deal with the transfer of legislation. The Broadcasting Act and the Electronic Communications Act have provisions that are relevant to the two departments. Ultimately, the specific functions must be assigned to the relevant Minister. The meetings started with the Ministers, and officials were given the mandate to drill down about specific functions facilitated by a state law advisor. DoC identified functions in the Broadcasting Act that must move to the DTPS, but as they discussed, it became clear that officials from the other side were not prepared to engage on those in the Electronic Communications Act that must come to DoC. This was where discussions stalled and this was where the Presidency must make further interventions to determine which functions go to the relevant minister. There were no specific time frames in the wait for the proclamation. On areas were legislation was clear, the DoC needs to move forward rather than wait for engagements that are not yielding results. On 8 October, the NMOS process closed, and the departments were established so they were able to move forward. Bilaterals with DTPS must continue and DPSA and Treasury must be involved to provide the necessary support to ensure that the two departments engage and agree on the outstanding issues.

Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, said delivery agreements had been received and it was clear who was doing what. Chapter 9 of the Electronic Communications Act deals with broadcasting, and all broadcasting-related matters belong to DoC, and postal and telecoms matters belongs to DTPS. The whole ICASA Act was transferred to DoC, but it has policy making matters relating to postal services and telecoms. Though the entire Act was transferred to her, it was her view that DTPS should be doing policy matters for telecoms. DoC needs support to ensure that all monies in the Communications Vote were properly transferred to it. The Broadcasting Act was clear with regards to policy making by the minister dealing with broadcasting. The Electronic Communication Act is a broad ICT Act that facilitates the convergence of technology and there was no way it could empower the other Minister to do policy related matters of broadcasting. DoC had been using GCIS budget and was housed at GCIS offices.

Mr Ndlozi said it must put on record that there was a fundamental problem in the fundamental re-organisation of the new Cabinet which has cost implications. The fiscus of South Africa was becoming tighter and tighter and it was unnecessary to expand the Cabinet in the way it was done. The Medium Term Financial Statement exposed these with the ‘hair cut’ measures the Finance Minister announced. The Cabinet was too big, was going to cost government more and DoC was one of the departments that will suffer. How can a whole ministry be housed in the GCIS offices?

Mr M Kekana (ANC) said this was a Committee meeting. MPs know their battleground as the National Assembly. The Committee was not there to talk about the President’s big Cabinet, whatsoever. The Committee must engage on issues facing the Committee and not politicking.

Mr Davis said the Committee always comes to a central argument on the nature of its job. Its nature was to oversee and scrutinize executive actions. Failure to do that was a dereliction of duty. It was true that reconfiguration has cost money and the divergence of the two departments was not working which was resulting in intractable warfare between the two. The officials were very keen and candid to apportion the blame to DTPS for not ceding sections of the ECA Act. The turf war was delaying digital terrestrial rollout which was a major problem. The Minister must give an opinion on whether it was working or not to diverge the two ministries in an era of convergence. It was impossible to split functions that have converged technologically. 

Minister Muthambi replied that there was no problem in separating the two, and the DOC was set up to be responsible for overarching communications thereby giving effect to Section 192 of the Constitution. She was given the Broadcasting Act which was clear on what needed to be done. She was also responsible for digital terrestrial television (DTT). She did not see any problem with the new department.

South African Broadcast Production Advisory Body
Mr Munzhelele said Section 38 of the Broadcasting Act 4 of 1999 as amended, tasks the Minister to establish a South African Broadcast Production Advisory Body (SABPAB) to advise her on how the development, production and display of local television and radio content can be supported. The Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) Policy provides for new additional television channels, and highlighted “compelling content” as a major driver of digital terrestrial television (DTT) take-up; and provides for the establishment of content generation hubs (CGHs).

Local Content refers to the texts, images (moving or still) that is of cultural or creative in nature that is written, presented, produced or otherwise contributed to and owned by persons from South Africa transmitted over electronic platforms. Digital content refers to “any sound, text, still picture or other audio-visual representation, tactile representation or any other preceding, which is capable of being created, manipulated, stored, retrieved or communicated electronically” (Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act ,1998).

South Africa’s content industry is estimated at R3 billion. It is dominated by a few companies and it lacks a comprehensive support mechanism for aspirant and emerging content creators; lacks robust and reliable infrastructure to encourage content development, and was concentrated in urban centres, particularly Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Functions of the SABPAB were to advise the Minister on how to encourage, facilitate and offer guidance and advise in respect of any scheme and to promote:-
- the production of broadcast materials that meet the cultural needs of South Africans;
- the screening and airplay of South African content in television and radio;
- awareness of local content in South African and foreign markets;
- distribution and exhibition of local content in foreign markets;
- the correction of imbalances in the local content production industry;
- how to encourage and facilitate the development of policy, strategy and legislation to combat the distribution of illegal or harmful content;
- human resource development to provide skills and training of local content providers; and
- co-productions and concluding international agreements.
 
The body was composed of six members appointed by the Minister in a manner ensuring participation by the public in the nomination process and transparency and openness. The appointment was to be published in the Gazette. The members of the Board must, when viewed collectively be persons who are citizens of the Republic; be persons who are committed to fairness, freedom of expression, the right of the public to be informed, and openness and accountability on the part of those holding public office; represent a broad cross-section of the population and different regions of the Republic; and may be members from government, the regulator, consumer groups, broadcasters, content creators, producers, and distributors who possess suitable qualifications, expertise and experience in, amongst other things, broadcasting, electronic engineering, economics, consumer issues, intellectual property (IP), content regulation, cyber crime and local and digital content. A member of the Advisory Body holds office for a period of five years and is eligible for re-appointment on expiry of term of office, but may not serve more than two consecutive terms of office. A member of the Advisory Body who is not in the full-time employment of the State may be paid remuneration and allowances determined by the Minister with the approval of the Minister of Finance in accordance with National Treasury Regulations.

Discussion
Mr Davis said he would like to see Parliament involved in appointing the advisory panel. Down the line, this procedure must be changed to enable Parliament to be involved in the appointment process. He asked how much the advisory board was going to cost, not just remuneration of board members, but the secretariat and all other related matters.

Mr Ndlozi said it was bizarre that Nigerian movies were not played on SABC, but everybody watches them. Instead it plays Van Damme, Jet Lee and other Euro American movies. There was also humour and satirical work that comes from East Africa. In Uganda, there was a brilliant woman who produces excellent comic work that everybody in South Africa watches. The public was interested in this work. This must be looked into and will help challenge South Africa’s exceptionality of seeing itself as an extension of Euro America. This will see less hatred of foreigners, particularly those from Africa. The body must travel and look for productions from the continent. If this was not done, it was going to advance the supremacist advancement of Euro American work in the entire creative industry including literature, poetry and the publication of African work.

Mr Ndlozi said there had to be an emphasis on the definition of historic disadvantage to put emphasis on black people whose work continues to be marginalised. ‘Generations’ was marginalised a few months ago which was mainly black people because the ANC mascots thought that the people do not deserve a salary. ‘Generations’ was watched across the continent. It was not racist to promote black people’s work. The history of South Africa and the continent was of black exclusion. This was an opportunity to recover their pride as people who can create works that come into being. He agreed with Mr Davis on the contribution of Parliament on the appointments of the board. There was a serious crisis in the boards in DoC who lie about their qualifications. It was Members of Parliament who were able to expose that properly and the DoC was not able to ‘see’ people who were qualified. Going forward, the advisory body must aggressively look into content not only grounded in South Africa, but the continent. It was very sad that SABC plays Beyonce and Jay Z rather than artists from South Africa.

Mr R Tseli said the body must review the provision about a member only being able to serve a maximum two terms consecutively on the advisory board, by putting in a provision to ensure no one can come back if the two terms were not consecutive.

The Chairperson said the advisory body must work in collaboration with other entities of government in developing content. The area of local content qualifies its existence to look into entities such as MDDA. She said that she does not know any MPs that were mascots.

Mr Munzele replied that issues raised by Mr Ndlozi will be looked into. The question on SABC was bigger than about the content, but talks of the funding model of SABC. The department has to grapple with the question of how SABC has sufficient funding to enable it to have content from all over the country. SABC was primarily dependent on funds from advertising. ICASA will have a role in issuing content quarters to the broadcasting sector. It has to work with the Department of Arts and Culture on creative work including literature. It will look into the term of office section to close that loophole. Skills development was key. There was once an institution called Nemisa which did fantastic work to capacitate young black people who come from disadvantaged areas and who were now working for SABC, eTV and Multi Choice. There was need for collaboration with the new institution in DTPS especially the Ikamva National eSkills Institute (iNeSI). Community radio stations were not for-profit organisations and government has to assist them even in gathering the news. It was not expected to be a huge budgetary requirement as the secretariat was already in the DoC and was not going to appoint new people.

Minister Muthambi commented that it was her responsibility to account to the legislature and the legislation clarifies the role of the body to advise the Minister. DTT says there must be SABPAD to properly implement DTT. She will give the Committee regular updates. The remuneration of boards was determined by National Treasury.

The Chairperson thanked the Members, the Minister and Deputy Minister and officials for a very productive day.

The meeting was adjourned.

Appendix
Constitution of and appointment of members of Board
4.
(1) (a) The Board consists of nine members.
(b) Six members of the Board must be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the National Assembly, according to the following principles:
(i) Participation by the public in the nomination process;
(ii) transparency and openness; and
(iii) the publication of a shortlist of candidates for appointment with due regard to subsection (4) and section 5.
(c) Three members must be appointed by the President, taking into consideration section 15, of whom one must be from the commercial print media and another from the commercial broadcast media.
(2) The President must appoint one of the members as chairperson of the Board.
(3) Members are appointed on a non-executive basis.
(4) Persons appointed to the Board must be persons who are-
(a) committed to fairness, freedom of expression, openness and accountability on the part of those entrusted with the governance of the public service;
(6) when viewed collectively-
(i) are representative of a broad cross section of the population of the Republic; and
(ii) possess suitable qualifications, expertise and experience in fields such as community media, social, labour and development issues, media economics, financial management and funding, advertising and marketing, journalism and broadcast programming, media research, media training, literacy and education, media law, information and communication technology policy.
(5) A member must, before performing his or her functions, take an oath or affirmation that he or she is committed to-
(a) fairness, freedom of expression, openness and accountability; and
(b) upholding and protecting the Constitution and the other laws of the Republic.