Department of Communications on 3rd Quarter 2015/16 performance

Meeting report

Department of Communications 2015/16 Organisational Performance and Financial Report Highlights
Mr Ndivhuho Munzhelele, DOC Acting Director General, said the Department comprises of four programmes which share a total of 86 indicators, 99 annual planned deliverables broken into 322 quarterly targets. In the third quarter, the DOC had 72 targets of which 54 targets were achieved, 4 partially achieved and 23 not achieved. The DOC developed and approved its human resource management plan and policies. Financial reports were compiled and presented to National Treasury in line with section 40 of the PFMA. The DOC currently has 88 funded posts on its approved establishment, 55 of these are filled, 26 still vacant and 25 have been employed in addition to the staff establishment. The budget, audit and risk committees were established. Programmes and projects not achieved include the Broadcasting Policy White Paper, ICASA Amendment Bill, Community Broadcasting Support Strategy, Broadcasting Radio Frequency Spectrum Dividend Policy, Media Transformation Policy, Media Development and Diversity Position Paper, Brand SA Bill, Audio Visual Digital Content Development Strategy and Cabinet approval of the National Communication Policy And Plan.

Discussion
The Chairperson said the Department did good work in its broadcasting awareness campaigns in communities across the country.

Ms P Van Damme (DA) said the DOC spending was on track, but it was disappointing that it did not achieve some important targets such as the Broadcasting Green Paper and the ICASA Amendment Bill. She asked if performance agreements were signed with other entities besides ICASA councillors and if shareholder compacts were signed with other entities besides the SABC. She asked why phone-in talk shows were banned by the SABC until after the local elections. On local election coverage, she complained that ANC members' coverage dominated television coverage on the weekend and no attention was paid to the launching of the DA mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. She asked what determines newsworthiness.

Ms R van Schalkwyk (ANC) said the DOC was to be applauded for the many things it had managed to do to date. She asked when the 26 vacancies would be filled and asked if the 25 additions to the establishment were contract workers. She asked the number of people with disability at senior management level, and gender representation across the DOC. She asked if there was any litigation against the DOC and its effect on its finances.

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) asked how the pride index was measured and asked if the additional establishment were consultants. She asked what was the community broadcasting strategy and what the DOC intends to do with the Brand SA Bill. She asked the timeline for the delivery of set top boxes. What was the status of the court case against the DOC about the Broadcasting Amendment Bill?

Mr M Kekana (ANC) said if the Minister was here as Mr Kekana would have recommended that she appoint the acting director general as the director general because he is doing well. He asked about the challenges in assisting the SABC funding model as it was totally unfair to give SABC 2% and expect it to deliver as a public broadcaster.

The Chairperson told the DOC to bring a progress report on the digital migration project when it comes back to the Committee. He asked if the DOC was able to compile a report on municipalities that advertise in national newspapers and do not utilising community radios and newspapers. He asked if the moratorium on licensing community radio stations was still active.

Mr Jimi Mathews, Acting Group Chief Executive, SABC, replied that the SABC has covered every election since 1994 - always under scrutiny- and not once have we been found wanting when the election coverage has been reviewed. He saw no reason why it should be any different this time and assured the Committee of fair coverage.

Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Chief Operating Officer, SABC, replied that there was a ruling party, largest opposition and second largest opposition party. The coverage of their events currently was commensurate to their proportional numbers. The SABC understands its mandate very well and would like to appeal to Committee members not to make certain statements without factual knowledge. The SABC was a Schedule 2 company and was a public broadcaster whose primary mandate was to serve the public. It used R100 million to cover the Mandela funeral from its finances and then Members complain SABC is making a loss. If it wanted to make profit, it could switch all programmes of national interest and focus on business only. There were statements from the opposition that the SABC broadcasting was influenced by the ANC yet DA members call SABC journalists trying to interfere with its operations which was bad.

Mr Munzhelele appealed to the Committee to improve the funding of the SABC rather than leaving it to the vagaries of the market to raise revenue. The digital environment also requires SABC to provide more content on health and education and there was a need to improve on collecting TV licences to increase its revenue. He would meet the head of SAPS to discuss how they can help each other collect TV licences. The DOC was working with limited resources. No consultants were being used. The Green Paper on Audiovisual Content Services had been developed and will be available for public comment soon. In terms of the law, the Minister can sign shareholder compacts with the SABC only. Section 6(a) of the ICASA Act requires the Minister to sign performance agreements with ICASA councillors. For the other entities, the Minister can only develop a governance instrument that governs the relationship between the Minister and the boards. He noted that Brand SA did a study on adults across age, race, urban and rural asking them if they identify themselves as South Africans. Nation building and patriotism was a collective work of both governments and the private sector. The DOC will limit targets in the coming financial year because of financial constraints. The DOC provides support to community radio stations through infrastructure-construction of state of the art studios; programme production-content related to national interest; signal distribution-provision via a subsidy on money paid to Sentech and capacity building on basic book keeping and financial management.

Ms Mathope Thusi, Chief Director: Corporate Services, DOC, replied the 25 additional workers were contract employments mainly in the digital environment and will be renewed based on availability of funds. There were 47% women at senior management and one person was disabled at senior management level.

Mr Munzhelele replied digital terrestrial television (DTT) should empower people in municipalities especially young people. Ten young people were being selected from each municipality and provided with skills to install set top boxes and service them as DTT was going to be there forever. The DOC cannot say when it will complete distributing set top boxes. China which produces its own set top boxes started the process in 2008 and has not yet completed this. The whole country is now ready for digital migration and when 84% of households have set top boxes in a particular community, the analogue signal was switched off. Only five million set top boxes will be distributed by government and the other ten million will be via retail.  The DOC had been involved in many litigations and that was the nature of the Department. It was working with state attorneys to manage the costs. The moratorium on licensing community radio stations was still active as there were no frequencies available on radio spectrum.

Mr Motsoeneng replied that SABC did not ban talk shows. It has programmes for sports, religion and others. The only platform for politicians was news.

Mr Munzhelele replied Brand SA was established in terms of a trust deed and the Brand SA Bill will be enabling legislation to govern its operations. He will check with the legal department and provide an update on the status of litigation against the DOC.

The Chairperson thanked the Department and said it must continue doing good work. The Chairperson wished everyone a happy Easter holiday and they would see each other after the break.

The meeting was adjourned.