Department of Communications, GCIS, ICASA, SABC, MDDA, Films & Publications Board & Brand South Africa on their 2016 Annual Performance Plan, with Minister

Meeting report

Briefing by Minister of Communications

Ms Faith Muthambi, Minister of Communications, said the resolutions of the ANC were put into action in government within the context of the medium term strategic framework (MTSF). Simultaneously, the outcomes of government were a narrative framework for implementing the ANC manifesto, which was its promise to the people. As government, the ANC had an opportunity to serve the people better and enable the citizens to pursue their dreams.

The government had embraced the outcomes approach and aligned programmes with those of state-owned companies (SOCs) to ensure that they were giving practical effect to the Ministerial Performance Agreements. The flagship programmes, whether in government communication policy, broadcasting or and nation building and social cohesion, were geared to set the country on a higher growth trajectory. 

Over 140 community radio stations had been licensed and many of these were operating. However, an estimated 90 to100 municipalities were without a community radio station. In this regard, the Department of Communications (DoC) would work with the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) to provide support to community radio stations by providing infrastructure to new stations whose licence had been granted but not issued prior to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA’s) issuing of the moratorium.

Funding for the SABC was critical. Public contributions to the revenues of the SABC still remained at less than 20%. The 60% quota funding requirement remained a distant possibility. This had had a profound impact on the nature and extent of services provided by the SABC.

The nature of communication had undergone a substantial change in the past 20 years and the change was not over. Communications were now shorter, more frequent and the response time had also greatly diminished. The world of broadcasting too was going through this change, due to the development of digital technology. Sites like YouTube were now a repository of popular culture in the form of newscasts, television shows, movies, or music videos that were of current interest.

To this end, the 2016 report by World Bank group had noted that for the digital revolution to forge ahead, the regulations that promote entry and competition must be in place, the content creation skills to leverage the new economy must be developed and enhanced to ensure citizens benefit directly from digital investment, and the institutions must be accountable to the citizens.

In his ninth State of the Nation Address (SoNA), President Zuma had said that “a resilient and fast growing economy was at the heart of our radical economic transformation agenda and our National Development Plan (NDP)”.  The President had pronounced the following plans to ignite growth and create jobs:

• The need to empower Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to accelerate their growth.
• State reform and boosting the role of State Owned Companies (SOCs), to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Review Commission on SOCs, which outlined how the institutions should be managed;
• Streamline and sharpen the mandates of the SOCs.
• Promote inclusion and a non- racial society;
• We must continue to market the country as a preferred destination for investments. This was necessary for the common good of our country;
• Government was developing a One Stop Shop/Invest in SA initiative to signal that South Africa was truly open for business.

The Minister said the 2016 Budget had come against the backdrop of a gloomy economic environment characterised by steady depreciation in the value of the rand and a recent hike in interest rates owing to exogenous and endogenous factors at play. Furthermore, the current state of the economy did not auger well for the 5.4% gross domestic product (GDP) growth hinted at in the NDP in order to reduce unemployment from the current 25% to 6% by 2030. 

As evidenced by the last quarter results published by Statistics South Africa, government was creating jobs, but many more millions were still unemployed. Despite this, government was unwavering in its commitment to stay the course of sound fiscal management in the face of this challenging environment. 

Over the MTSF period, the two departments, ICASA and all entities would continue to play a vital role in driving strategic government communications and the enabling of economic growth in the information communication technology (ICT) sector through the broadcasting infrastructure roll-out of flagship projects. In support of the National Infrastructure Plan, the department was currently rolling-out Set-Top Boxes (STBs) in the Northern Cape and Free State. Registration was currently underway in Mpumalanga.

From 2010/11 to 2014/15, the broadcasting population coverage had increased by 4.7 million and the geographical coverage by 129.4 square kilometres. Sentech had completed all 178 migration sites which provided 84% population coverage and 58% geographical coverage.  The remaining 16% of the population for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) would be covered by the Direct-To Home (DTH) satellite gap-filler solution.

The Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) would develop an overarching national policy to guide government communications and expedite the implementation of the qualification for government communicators. In addition, the Department would also implement the Cabinet-approved National Communication Strategy, which would be cascaded to all other spheres of government.

The GCIS also supported other departments and government clusters to ensure current and relevant information was made available to the media and citizens through various platforms.

The Minister said that defining e-government too narrowly as only “electronic service delivery” could result in exercises that were overly complex and costly. Such a definition could also miss the transformative potential of e-government to speed up decision-making, streamline or reduce processes, or reduce costs of engagement.

Through its multi-media platforms and the Thusong Service Centre, the GCIS would endeavour to drive modernisation of the public sector; improve government business processes and enhance access to government communication services by the citizens.

The Minister said thebiggest beneficiaries of the ICT sector were the general public, so both regulatory and market failure affected the general public in terms of the Quality of Service (QoS) availability, accessibility and affordability of products. To this end, the independent regulator safeguards the interests of the over 54 million citizens who use and interacts with ICT services in their everyday lives.

Sentech, working with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA), had launched the Digital Audio Broadcasting+ (DAB+) digital radio trial transmission, and once finalised, this new platform would transform the sector by unlocking numerous new and existing opportunities.

Broadband connectivity was important. For example, e-Content uses high broadband infrastructure and was interactive, collaborative and was integrated in structure and functionality. Researchers believe that e-Content could become the dominant information and entertainment product of the 21st century. Therefore broadband and new content development were inextricably interdependent.

Market consolidation-mergers and acquisition activity were expected in the course of the 2016/17 financial year and onwards, as competition continued to heat up as licencees sought new revenue streams. Both ICASA and the Competition Commission would be instrumental in this regard.

On regulation matters, 5G wireless was presently in its early research stages. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was currently at work on International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) spectrum requirements for 2020 and beyond. After this period, countries would have a clearer path for determining network systems and technology requirements. 5G wireless networks would support 1 000-fold gains in capacity, with connections for at least 100 billion devices.

The 2016 Research Report by the government on expenditure in the area of ICT goods and services showed that government expenditure had been expanding at an exponential rate and was likely to continue beyond the current level of more than 10 % of GDP. However, most of these goods were imported. There was a need to create opportunities such as manufacturing development and creative industries for Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs).

The Minister said the Department realised that the strategic goals and key performance indicators for the annual performance plan (APP) for current financial year, would be the main basis upon which the Portfolio Committee would evaluate the performance of departments, the regulator and all entities, when the annual report for the year was submitted to Parliament in September/October 2017.

The National Development Plan (NDP) also envisaged an active citizenry that participated in the socio-economic life of the country. Chapter 14 of the plan on nation building and social cohesion stated that in 2030, South Africa would be more conscious of the things they had in common than of their differences, and that their lived experiences would progressively undermine and cut across the divisions of race, gender, disability, space and class. This would be achieved only when government was at the centre of providing effective communication to support these aspirations.

Therefore, in preparing for the APP, steps had been taken to respond to the deficiencies and internal compliance issues highlighted by Auditor-General on the APPs (SMART Principles), the Budget Vote Report and oversight Report of the Committee, to ensure that the Department responded to the issues.

While vacancy rate was relatively low across the entire portfolio, there was a need to expedite the filling of funded vacant positions at all levels to bring about leadership stability in all government institutions. In doing so, the aim was to comply with the necessary legislative prescripts, including ensuring compliance with Employment Equity Act (EEA) targets in terms of 50% women at senior management services (SMS) level, as well as the employment of 2% of people living with disabilities. To this end, all portfolio organisations would be monitored against their organogram, to ensure the job requirements matched the available skills set requirements. The SABC might require more time in this regard, as the Board had recently reported that the public broadcaster had employees in excess of the requirement.

In addition, in each quarter, all employees would undergo a performance review, and where there were gaps in performance, personal development plans would be implemented. In the last quarter, all employees except those who had joined the organisation in the middle of the financial year would be assessed, so that performance rewards were paid provided the institution had achieved and exceeded the targets set out in the APP.

To intensify the Department’s efforts to brand and create a positive image of the country, to contribute towards nation building as well as to communicate and create awareness of the DTT project, numerous parallel strategies would implemented, including requesting Members of Parliament (MPs), as potential stakeholders, to be engaged as brand ambassadors.

The Minister said the Department also had weaknesses. ICASA, the SABC, the MDDA, the Film and Publication Board (FPB) and Brand South Africa (BSA) were awfully under-funded, and were working tirelessly to review their funding models to ensure the long term financial viability of these institutions as they carried their mandates respectively.

The Department was also looking at different options, working with the whole of government to ensure everyone played their part. For instance, BSA did not have line authority to enforce compliance with the brand frameworks across all spheres of government and to other similar entities. In the interim, collaborative work was being done to address the gaps in the national brand of the country. In the same, vein, the Department was working with the MDDA to maximise participation of this entity in ministerial and provincial imbizos as part of its strategy to create awareness of the work they did in communities.

The Department was also working with the MDDA to understand the estimated impact, if any, of the Over-The-Top (OTT) service  in the community media space. In the interim, it would look to work with the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) to ensure that community media and small commercial stations made use of the available domain.

The community sector jobs were largely made up of volunteers who were paid stipends. No universal amounts were stipulated, and each media project paid staff what it could afford, and others volunteered in the true sense. By their nature, stipends provided some incentive for workers and encouraged them to sharpen their ICT skills. The Department would have liked to have had a ‘minimum standardised stipend,’ but this might be more difficult to do as there were areas of the country that were declared ‘unprofitable’ owing to the lack of economic activities.

On governance issues, the Minister said she would also like to see the governance extended to all Board Members of community media, to maximise accountability of state resources and adherence to the constitution of media projects.

With few exceptions, the Department had endeavoured to comply with the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) principle in the process of the APP cycle. It had consulted with National Treasury, the Auditor General and the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, and knew that there was further room for improvement. However, internal mechanisms had also pointed out the targets’ deficiencies and the structuring of targets in other instances, and letters had been issued to all councils and boards, together with their respective executives, to ensure that these deficiencies did not recur in future. For instance, to allow for better oversight by the board, shareholders and Parliament, in instances where there were annual figures, there had to be a statistical breakdown of what the entity would be doing in each quarter as part of a target which would culminate into the annualised target.

In this financial year, the Department would be working with the regulator to finalise and bring about stability to the issue of the relocation of ICASA’s head office. At the same time, to cut costs in line with the austerity measures announced by the President and the Minister of Finance respectively, the hope was to use existing provincial government buildings where possible.

Section 9(1)(a-b) of the Broadcasting Act correctly defined that the SABC consisted of two separate divisions -- a public service division and a commercial service division. In addition, section 2 of the Act stipulates that ‘the public and commercial service divisions must be separately administered and a separate set of financial records and accounts were to be kept in respect of each division.’

The Minister said she took note of the SABC’s request to make public only the details of the public broadcasting division, fearing that competitors often had a competitive advantage in knowing what and how the commercial strategy of the SABC would unfold. In this regard, unless the SABC complied with the Broadcasting Act --which required that the two divisions be presented separately -- it would be extremely difficult to achieve what it advocated. The Department did not want to sound as though it was arguing that the public broadcaster was reluctant to account, as this had the potential to create a wrong perception about the SABC, given its historical governance issues. However, it would appeal to Parliament that in future a special arrangement be made in the interim to accommodate the presentation of the commercial strategy of the SABC. A point could be made only once the two divisions had been separated as per the Act, which would enable the SABC to comply with the Act.

Alcohol was marketed in South Africa through an integrated mix of strategies: advertising on television, radio, the internet, and in print; point-of-sale promotions; and by the association of brands with a variety of sports and cultural events. In addition, ADEX calculates that nearly R400 million was spent on alcohol-related corporate social investment, sponsorships, competitions, and promotions. If a total ban on alcohol advertising was legislated, an outright ban on alcohol advertising on television and radio was one of the biggest risks to SABC's revenue. It was a significant part of the SABC’s advertising revenue, and such a ban would see the SABC lose about 8.5% of its advertising income. The ban would also have implications for all media or the entire portfolio of the Department. Research indicated that of the R17bn spent on advertising in 2012, about 10% could probably be directly attributed to alcohol advertising in the mass media. Removing that from the advertising and media industries would achieve nothing but considerable job losses.

The Minister said that in this regard, she had instructed the SABC Board to quantify the financial impact that an alcohol advertising ban was likely to have on the following:

-  Public commercial service -- separate amounts for its radios and television channel/s in this division; and
-  Public broadcasting services -- separate amounts for both radio and television channels in this division.

During the past few years, one of the major weaknesses of the SABC had been its reluctance or failure to deal with governance matters. However, a comprehensive risk identification had been included as an annexure on pages 100 to108.

The Minister concluded that she expected the Board and Management to ensure that the SABC move from qualified audits to unqualified audit, with no matters of emphasis.

Department of Communications Strategic Plan and Annual performance plan

Mr Norman Munzhelele, Acting Director General, DoC, said that the market for communications, media and content was becoming increasingly competitive. The print media ownership patterns had remained largely untransformed, and were still in the hands of a few industry players. Today there were more broadcasting services, a plethora of channels, and programmes in more languages and more genres that ever before.  The development of the Online Content Regulation Policy had been born out of the realization that content distribution had shifted from physical content distribution to the internet or digital space. This posed a challenge of access to harmful content by children. The entry of big players such as Google, Apple and Blackberry in the South African market necessitated the establishment of a temporary regulatory regime to ensure their adherence and compliance to the South African legislative landscape. The monopoly of the media by major media houses was impacting negatively on the development and diversity of views and the promotion of freedom of expression. Most publications still appeared in English and Afrikaans, which was not in line with the demographics of the country and the indigenous languages. Main stream media continued to receive the bulk of advertising revenue.

The strategic objectives of the DoC were:

• Effective and efficient strategic leadership, governance and administration;
• A responsive communications policy and regulatory environment ;
• Improved country branding;
• Transformed communications sector.

The DoC’s budget for 2016-17 was R1.345 billion.

Government Communication and Information System (GCIS)

Mr Donald Liphoko, Acting Director General, GCIS, said informed by the recent reconfiguration of the state, changing fiscal conditions, communication environment and government regulations, the GCIS had made changes to its 2016-2020 strategic plan. The changed strategic goals were:

• A responsive, cost effective, compliant and business focused organization;
• Professionalising the communication system by building a reliable knowledge base and through communication products;
• Enhancing the image of government;
• Providing adequate and effective corporate service functions in pursuit of good governance;
• Providing efficient and effective communication services;
• Managing the corporate identity for national government;
• Producing government’s communication products and providing services to grow the share of voice of government messages in the public arena; and
• Maintaining and strengthening a well-functioning communication system that proactively informd and engaged the public.

The total budget for 2016/17 was R432 413 000.

Film and Publication Board (FPB)

Mr Temba Wakashe, CEO, FPB, said the entity’s priorities were technology-driven content classification, consumer education, legislative review, local and international partnerships and funding and resource mobilisation. Challenges were the proliferation of content to various platforms, increased emphasis on governance and a compliance skills gap, inadequate empirical data, limited funding options and limited monitoring and evaluation systems. Strategic outcomes included:

• Effective and visible monitoring of the industry throughout the entire value chain for the protection of consumers -- primarily children -- and adults through information;
• Informed consumers, general members of the public and industry about the mandate, programmes and operations of the FPB;
• Effective, efficient and sustainable management of FPB operations;
• Effective and innovative regulation of the content distributed through online, mobile and related platforms for the protection of children, youth and adults through information
• Expansion of the FPB foot print and qualitative impact through effective partnerships and stakeholder relationships in pursuance of its mandate

The total budget for 2016/17 was R94 941 000.

Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA)

Ms Thembelihle Sibeko, Acting Chief Executive Officer, said MDDAs’ five year priorities included:

• Leading the MDDA Act Review processes;
• Organizational renewal;
• Supporting organisational delivery and growth;
• Expanding funding and capacity for community media development;
• Positioning the MDDA as a leader in the sector;
• Advocacy and lobbying for media development and diversity and the promotion of a culture of reading and literacy;
• Grant and seed funding of community media and small commercial media to ensure ownership and control of, and access to media by historically disadvantaged communities.

The budget for 2016/17 was R75 776 000.

Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Strategic Plan 2016/17-2021 and APP 2016/17

Mr Pakamile Pongwana, CEO, ICASA, said the entity’s main focus for the next five years was to, amongst other things, enable digital migration. It would put regulations in place in order to assist community broadcasters and facilitate compliance in the sector. ICASA Council would licence existing and new players on the MUX3. The Authority’s priorities included reducing the costs of communications to both consumers and businesses in order to improve the international competitiveness of the country. The Authority intended to do this through reduction of key input costs as well as creating an effectively-competitive market structure.  The Authority updated its five year strategic plan taking into consideration several inputs, such as a scan of important developments in the ICT sector, the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting, the increasing demand for broadband services and the consequent need for assignment of radio frequency spectrum, the ICT ecosystem and standardisation, as well as research and development needs on future trends.. The strategic objectives for ICASA were to:

• Contribute to broadband coverage increase from 33.7% to 90% at 5Mbps, 50% at 100Mbps by 2019
• Increase access to communication services at affordable prices through increase in competition by reducing concentration in the broadband and subscription services markets from 3600 to 1800 per market/service by 2021
• increase quality of service to all stakeholders from 29% to 80% by 2021 
• Increase television broadcasting platforms from 3 to 7 by 2019 to foster common national identity and social cohesion

Weaknesses of the organisation were outdated technological and manual operating systems and immature project management system and processes. The budget for 2016/17 was R414 481 000

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

Mr Jimi Mathews, Acting Group Chief Executive Officer, SABC, said the SABC was mandated to deliver an unparalleled public value proposition of educating, informing and entertaining all South Africans in all official languages by means of 18 radio stations (and an additional 19th station, Channel Africa, hosted on behalf of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation) and five television channels, including the SABC News channel and SABC Encore, which was dedicated to providing nostalgic content from the 80s and 90s. The SABC operated in the context of one of the most rapidly changing business environments in the world.  The global media sector was experiencing fundamental changes due to the growth of digital technology and the convergence of media, technology and telecommunications. The Corporation also operated in a developing South African economy which had felt the impacts of a global slowdown, and was susceptible to foreign exchange fluctuations which had had a significant impact on its core business. Finally, as a commercially-funded, state-owned enterprise, the SABC operated within a unique internal environment - one in which it must move with agility to compete with commercial competitors, yet still comply with public sector operating guidelines. The key changes impacting on the South African media sector included:

• Changes in the regulatory environment with the licensing of new broadcasters, and especially the launch of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT);
• The launch of several Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming Video-On-Demand (VOD) services offering access to local and international movies and television series via the Internet;
• The rise of multi-platform television access, where viewers now expect to be able to view traditional television content on mobile, gaming and desktop devices, as well as on TV sets;
• The popularity of new forms of video content -- especially short-format user-generated video on social media platforms

The SABC would continue to work closely with the Department of Communications on the “GO DIGITAL SOUTH AFRICA” awareness campaign to educate and inform South Africans about this journey of taking television broadcasting into a new era of digital broadcasting, with exceptional picture and sound clarity. The SABC had been preparing for the migration and had five television channels for the launch of the DTT bouquet, along with 19 radio stations.  The SABC planned to launch additional television channels on the DTT platform. Strategic objectives for SABC included:

• To be a financially sustainable organisation;
• To acquire and schedule compelling and quality programming, spanning a range of genres, in all official South African languages, and exceeding the mandate objectives across traditional and digital media platforms;
• To develop a dynamic and motivated fit-for-purpose workforce that embraced learning and was sufficiently adaptable to migrate into the digital age;
• To ensure compliant governance practices complemented by effective risk management and internal controls.

The budget for 2016/17 was R9 billion.

Risks included:

• A possible ban on liquor and food advertising;
• Sports rights continuing to increase above inflation;
• Fluctuations in exchange rates that lead to increases in sports rights and foreign content costs;
• Employee costs which exceeded inflation;
• Any expected loss of legal matters under litigation.

Brand South Africa (BSA)

Ms Alice Puoane, Chief Financial Officer, Brand SA, said the situational context for planning was influenced by domestic factors such as transformation challenges, economic challenges, energy security, domestic policy environment, service delivery challenges, crime and corruption headwinds and regional migration and social tensions, amongst others. International factors included Africa’s emerging market stature, Nigeria emerging as an economic power, SA topping the foreign direct investment (FDI) trend and SA’s peace keeping and conflict resolution role.

Brand SA strategic objectives were:

• To ensure a high performance organisation, boasting the competitiveness needed to deliver locally and abroad;
• To improve the reputation, perception and awareness of the nation’s brand among targeted audiences;
• To develop strategic partnerships and relationships with targeted stakeholders to leverage its impact.

The total budget for 2016/17 was R181 186 000.

Discussion

Ms V van Dyk (DA) asked about the percentage of black ownership in community media. She asked the MDDA why the budget for print media was smaller than for broadcasting. Why did the GCIS not make use of community media in advertising? How much did the GCIS spent on the New Age? What progress had the DoC made in liaising with the commercial media that had stopped contributing to the MDDA. She was concerned with the MDDA’s vacancy rates and that it had many people in acting positions, causing it to underachieve dismally. She asked if SABC held any public consultations on its editorial policy. She asked the Minister why SABC CEO Frans Matlala had been suspended, at which court the case was being heard, and ifthe papers could be made available to the Committee. She asked FPB on the progress made on training educators about child pornography. Why had the DoC allocated only 2% of its budget to policy research.

Mr M Kekana (ANC) asked about SABC’s future plans to screen soccer. Did the SABC have any relationships with other broadcasters in the BRICS. He wanted to know why some sponsors wanted to pull out in the absence of Hlaudi Motsoeneng. He wanted an explanation for the 800 excess workers that needed to be retrenched. What were the SABC’s plans to collect more than R2 billion in TV licences? He asked about the SABC’s plans for broadcasting the elections. What had Brand SA done following the negative reports that had followed the reshuffling of Mr Nene and the Nkandla ruling? He asked if ICASA could lift the moratorium on the awarding of new licences for community radio before year end. Was the entity facing any litigation? He asked the Minister to present to the Committee the treaties signed with neighboring countries in order to make them operational. The ANC resolution said SABC must get 60% of its funding from the state. This had started in Mafikeng in 1997 and it was time for things to move.

Mr R Tseli (ANC) was happy to see the Minister moving around and doing broadcasting campaigns. The size of delegations coming to present before Parliament was not in line with the austerity measures announced by the President and Finance Minister. He asked which areas of the MDDA mandate needed to be amended. What did ICASA do to non-compliant licence holders? The SABC’s coverage of activities of portfolio committees was focused more on the reporting of activities of other party members, rather than the ANC. The funding model of the SABC needed to be fast tracked for it to be a truly public and impartial broadcaster. He asked about the kind of support the MDDA offered to community radio. He was concerned that entities continued to use consultants, yet people were appointed to posts on the basis of skills. What was the employment equity status in entities, including executive levels? The Minister should brief the Committee on shareholder compacts and the performance contracts signed with entities. He asked how the SABC was going to deal with its excess employees. Did the GCIS provide feedback to communities on issues raised during Izimbizos? He was concerned that many small media outlets were reliant on government grants for survival.

Ms S van Schalkwyk (ANC) asked about the DoC action plan for promoting language diversity in community media. She asked if the MDDA had monitoring mechanisms in place to ensure the sustainability of community broadcast media. Did the DoC have plans for DTT workers after the implementation of DTT? Was any litigation facing the MDDA? She asked if ICASA had any plans for the upward mobility of workers. ICASA’s travel budget was too big. The 102% increase in the council budget for ICASA was a cause of concern.

The Chairperson asked why print media was still monopolized by large commercial entities. She asked how Brand SA branded the country when the indigenous people themselves were compromised. What criteria were used by the MDDA to identify the five radio stations that needed support? What type of actions would be taken if invoices were not paid in 30 days? She asked MDDA to provide the specific locations of radio stations for oversight purposes.

Minister Muthambi replied that she was a shareholder and not a board member and did not deal with the recruitment of employees at the SABC. The Committee should give her a date to brief it on shareholder compacts and the performance contracts signed with entities. She had a working session with the SABC on its proposed funding model. She had signed Memorandums of Incorporation (MOIs) and not Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), according to the 1996 Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol on communication methodology. In other countries, if it was a MOU it had to go through the Attorney General’s office. She could bring the MOIs to the Committee if requested.

Mr Munzhelele said the DoC and GCIS had commissioned research on who owned who, and that research was not yet out. The DoC was facing a case of ETV vs Minister, which was in the Supreme Court of Appeal to be heard on 6 May. The DoC did not use consultants. It would engage the language board on how it could assist print media in publishing in other languages. The MDDA could also limit funding to media publishing in a particular language. Some of the community media were under the influence of big media, instead of being truly community media. The radios to be supported were determined based on available funding. The DoC was seriously under-funded and could allocate only a maximum of 2% of its budget for policy research. There were no overdue invoices in the DoC -- it accepted only an invoice that was compliant. The DoC had 374 approved posts, but only 86 were funded. 47% were women in executive positions, and 2% had disabilities.

Mr Liphoko said that he had engaged the print media and the GCIS had also reviewed its procurement plan. It now had three categories of directives where the print media engaged directly with it; cooperatives, where provincial newspapers come together and form a cooperative, and media sales agents, where owners of media can interact directly with government. All suppliers must be registered on the central supplier database. It was currently allocating 13% of its advertising budget to community media, which was lower than other years because of challenges in community media. It also worked with local suppliers in hosting izimbizo programs.

Mr Harold Maloka, Deputy Director General: Content Processing and Dissemination, GCIS, said that from 2010 it had cut down on the outsourcing of advertising. It was now looking to other alternative means of advertising. For example, instead of putting an advert in the newspaper for a week, it would advertise on a bill board for six months for the same cost. It was also using social media, outdoor and digital platforms for advertising, including websites. The GCIS had provided R35 million in 2015/16 for community media.

Ms Nebo Legoabe, Deputy Director General, Intergovernmental Relations and Stakeholder Management, GCIS, replied that as a matter of practice, she had been continuously encouraging ministers for feedback visits. The last visit the GCIS hosted had focused on the nine point plan and voter registration. Feedback was critical for closure of some matters. However, the communities raised issues that concerned sister departments and the department present had to answer or be able to carry the question to the other department to respond on that particular issue.

Mr Zwelinjani Momeka, CFO, GCIS, said the entity would continue to promote competitiveness because government could get value for money only if the net was cast wide. The GCIS had started implementing cost containment measures before the Treasury regulations. Its officials were adhering to cutting costs and it was starting to see the fruits of cost containment. He would continue to instill a culture of compliance and would apply for additional funding to National Treasury, because GCIS had a good cause.

Dr Aaron Tshidzumba, Board Member, SABC, said he could not comment on the Frans Matlala issue because it was sub judice. He did not have an answer for the neglect of coverage of ANC members in committees at Parliament. It was safe to say that the SABC had young journalists who sometimes expressed their views and anger in reports. The ANC, as the majority representative party, should get more coverage. On sports rights, the SABC was competing with private broadcasters and the highest bidder wins, which was why it struggled for sports broadcasting rights. The SABC had almost lost out on CAF soccer matches, but Mr Motsoeneng had managed to negotiate with a discount two days before being closed out. He had also managed to negotiate R15 million for elections through partnerships, and the SABC now had a shortfall of R17 million for the elections. The Minister had a plan for election coverage and a special presentation on the elections could be made if needed. The SABC team was in India and starting to negotiate with BRICS partners.

Mr Mathews said the issue of negotiating sports rights was based on trust and personalities. The rights were negotiated in US dollars, and the figures were scary. He had almost walked away, and at that time Mr Motsoeneng had been on leave. When he came back, he had used the same criteria to negotiate and had ended up with a discount because of his persuasive character. The SABC had gone on road shows on editorial policies in the country. He disagreed that it may be young people sidelining the coverage of the ANC members, as it had to be edited as well. The SABC, however, did not have a sinister agenda in the lack of coverage of the majority party. The SABC would cover the elections in the professional way citizens expected from it. He had recently met the Russian ambassador to start talking about broadcasting deals.

Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Chief Operating Officer, SABC, said it must either come to reporting on profit or to generate profit. It chose between education, entertainment and health, with business. The SABC had lost R100 million on its coverage of the funeral of the late Nelson Mandela. If one of the members in this Committee died tomorrow, the  SABC would cover it, but it was unbudgeted for. To the auditors, it was a loss, but to the SABC it was fulfilling its public mandate. If there was a big announcement to be made today, SABC would take off its programs to announce it. Sponsors did not dictate the editorial policy of the SABC. If all political parties were complaining about the SABC, it meany it was now doing its work. Previously it used to be only the opposition complaining.

The SABC had good journalists but some of them followed print media in their reporting. Human beings were human beings and belonged to certain parties but when appointed to the SABC one had to follow the governance procedures of the SABC. The SABC had to use the portion that parties represented in reporting. He would not hesitate to dismiss journalists who reported as analysts instead of reporting the facts and leaving politics to the politicians. Some parties were interfering with the work of the SABC by asking why one removed somebody on air.

SABC and BRICS were putting measures together for South Africa to start operating in other countries. SABC was also assisting provinces to come up with local content. SABC was not treating African languages well, especially in the news. It would ask for exemption from Treasury for reporting losses. Now was the time for SABC to start whipping its journalists into reporting on elections, to report on communities rather than trying to influence the public. SABC also needed to report on the good, but journalists tought reporting was only reporting about the bad things. Some of the journalists needed to visit other countries to see that poverty was there.

Mr Kingsley Makhubela, CEO: Brand SA, said that following Pravin Gordhan’s appointment, and when there were no policy changes, business in South Africa had been able to buy in on Gordhan. The Minister had also gone to the United Kingdom and United States to say there was policy continuity. The Nkandla ruling was a zero sum approach. If one approached it from a constitutional perspective, the ruling asserted the centrality of rule of law. Rating agencies had begun making comments about the country’s courts.  The FPB had incurred expenses of R19 million on consultants for a legal opinion on operationalising its office in the UK, US and China. It was earmarking 3% of the work force for people with disability. BSA had 60% males at executive committee level, and 70% at management level were female.

ICASA said it would take the plea for moratorium to council. It adopted a corrective measure rather than a punitive measure when an operator failed on the terms and conditions of a licensee. It had employed extra staff for the elections. The Council now had eight people, as opposed to the previous three, and this had caused the increase in the budget for councillors.

Ms Sibeko said the MDDA had renewed all its job descriptions. Adverts for vacancies had been put in city press. It would prioritise the funding of community media in rural areas. It also conducted site visits to identify which radio stations required funding.

Mr Sipho Risiba, COO, FPB, said that it had formed partnerships with three districts on the learner manual to identify gaps. The vision was to make it part of the basic education curriculum. It had four cases of litigation -- three for labour misconduct, and one for an employee who had resigned and came back to claim constructive dismissal. All the cases were before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

Minister Muthambi welcomed the feedback from Izimbizos. More details would be provided later on the MDDA amendments. The SABC had been exonerated on the case that was before the Competition Commission.

The Chairperson said the Committee would make unannounced oversight visits. It had the power to call anyone if certain issues were not clear. In the past, it had requested the SABC to report on Members and public servants that did not pay their TV licences. The Department and entities must not plan ambitiously, but plan on the available budget. She was also concerned with potential job losses following a ban on liquor advertising. The Committee would make a follow up on responses that did not satisfy it.

The meeting was adjourned.