Department of Communications & GCIS 2016/17 Annual Reports, with AGSA input; with Minister and Deputy

This premium content has been made freely available

Communications and Digital Technologies

03 October 2017
Chairperson: Mr H Maxegwana (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

The Committee received a briefing on the analysis of the 2016/17 annual reports of the Department of Communications (DoC) and its entities, as well as the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS). The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) reported on its audit findings on the DoC and its entities.

The Committee commended the DoC and GCIS for their clean audit reports for 2016/17. The DoC had maintained a clean audit for two consecutive years, whereas the GCIS had maintained its clean audit status for the fourth consecutive year. Both Departments were, however, found to have had critical positions left vacant, and the Minister committed to have the positions of Director-General for both the DoC and the GCIS filled before the end of 2017.

Key DoC achievements included the switch off of the analogue signal in core areas surrounding the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the Northern Cape, and the rolling out 69 digital awareness campaigns against a targeted 10, resulting in thousands of set-top box (STB) installations countrywide. The Moses Kotane Institute had trained over 441 young people as installers for the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Direct to Home (DTH) devices as a result of the DoC’s partnerships with provincial departments.

Of the entities under DoC, only BrandSA had managed to receive a clean audit opinion from the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA). The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the Film and Publication Board (FPB) and the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) had received unqualified opinions, while the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) had received an adverse opinion, which was a regression from the qualified opinion it had received in 2015/16. AGSA said that the SABC was in an adverse state, because it was not in a position to pay its creditors. Invoices had not been captured and AGSA could not determine exactly how much was owed. The amount could have been greater or less than the reported loss of R976.8 million.

The GCIS said that the department had distributed 21 346 million copies of Vukuzenzele throughout the country and to those individuals with limited or no access to mainstream media. For those with visual disability, the GCIS had ensured that 7 800 copies of Vukuzenzele printed in Braille were available. Vukuzenzele’s distribution reach was one of the biggest in South Africa.

The Committee committed to probe the SABC and other entities in its portfolio that had performed poorly in 2016/17.

Meeting report

Appointment of SABC Board

The Chairperson said that while Parliament was on recess, the office of the Chairperson as well as the political parties had still been working, and the issue of the SABC board candidates not yet being appointed by the President had kept them working. Everything had been done above board by the Committee and the National Assembly (NA) insofar as recommending the candidates for appointment. The President was “applying his mind”, and his office was verifying all the qualifications of candidates with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) before making any formal appointments to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board. He had been previously been left with “egg on his face” when former SABC Board Chairperson, Ellen Tshabalala, had been found in December 2014 to have lied about her qualifications, and had subsequently resigned before the President could fire her as recommended by Parliament.

Ms P van Damme (DA) said that it was unsatisfactory that the checks had not been done within the three weeks that the President had to do that, because Parliament had met its deadlines and therefore the office of the Presidency needed to have done the same as well. Without an appointed SABC Board, the broadcaster was open to capture and corruption, as had become the custom.

Ms N Tolashe (ANC) welcomed the explanation by the Chairperson and the Minister, and said that unfortunately only the President had the authority, and all they could do was wait and allow the appointment process to happen.

Mr M Kalako (ANC) asked whether the Minister had said that she would be receiving feedback from the office of the Presidency in two days, and if an SABC board would then be appointed.

Mr M Gungubele (ANC) said that he wished it could be explained by those responsible why the process of verifying matric certificates had taken so long, since it had taken the Committee only two days or less through the State Security Agency (SSA).

Ms Dlodlo said that the undertaking from SAQA was that in the next two days, they would provide the Department of Communications (DoC) with information on the status of the candidate’s qualifications. However, this was also dependent on the candidates submitting their matric certificates to SAQA in time.

Mr Gungubele said that the intention was not to delay, but it could not indefinitely depend on whether one availed their matric certificate or not. His worry was that the current situation was illegal and dysfunctiona,l and if legal issues could not be found then there needed to be contingencies in place going forward.

Briefing by Committee Support Staff

Mr Mbombo Maleka, Content Advisor, Portfolio Committee on Communications (PCC) said that during 2016, the economy had shrunk by more than 1%, and this translated into declining average incomes for South Africans, impacting most severely on those at the lower end of the income distribution.

The current administration had 24 months of their term left, and they were constrained by the fiscal environment. The 14 outcomes of government were catalysts for successful implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) goals. The DoC’s work contributed in particular to outcome 14, which dealt with nation building and social cohesion of the 2014-2019 Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF). Outcome 14 was cross-cutting, and had an impact on all other outcomes of government. It inculcated a feeling of belonging, accountability and responsible behaviour, and was necessary for building trust which was associated with stronger economic performance.

The lack of expansion in the economy was placing a strain on the employment and budgets of government departments, but this still did not justify why the DoC was under-funded.

Only two entities under the DoC had been mentioned in the mid-term review of progress towards the NDP. These were the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

The DoC had achieved 76% of its targets in the 2016/17 financial year, which was up from 63% in 2015/16. However, the Department’s core function was one with the least successful service delivery. Out of six targets, only two had been achieved. In 2015/16, the DoC had committed to capacitating the supply chain management (SCM) function during the 2016/17 financial year, as the service was currently supported by the department of Government Communications and Information Systems (GCIS).

The DoC’s budget had been increasing nominally over the years, from R1.290 billion in 2015/16, to R1.425 billion in 2017/18. R1.35 billion, or 91.3% of the budget, was allocated for transfers to the State Owned Entities (SOEs) and regulatory institutions in its portfolio. After transfers to SOEs, the department was left with R117.8 million for operations, of which 38% was allocated to goods and services, and 57.7% was allocated to compensation of employees.

Looking at the Committee itself, there needed to be a systemisation of the tracking of recommendations. Recommendations needed to be time bound, and the Committee had to ensure the full implementation of its own recommendations. Protocol defeated the purpose of the oversight model, especially when looking at the SABC appointment process. Programming of the Committee needed to include presentations on responses to recommendations in a systematic manner. The Committee did not get an opportunity to review the responses to recommendations.

While it was commendable that the DoC had received a clean audit for 2016/17, its entities had not received clean audits, and this would make it extremely difficult for the Department to request additional funding from National Treasury (NT) in following years.

Mr Kalako said that the presentation was clear, and would help them going forward with presentations from the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA), the DoC and the GCIS.

Auditor-General of South Africa: Presentation

Ms Alice Muller, Corporate Executive, Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), said that usually where there were clean audits, service delivery was also good. If there were any findings in audit reports, they were usually found in internal control. If action plans were not implemented, poor record keeping was not addressed, and irregular spending recurred year after year, then internal control was failing. The SABC, the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and the Film and Publication Board (FPB) had internal control issues relating to their poor audit findings.

AGSA looked at three areas, financial management, compliance, and performance information when offering audit opinions. There had been a regression in audit outcomes, and that regression was mainly at the SABC. The SABC was in an adverse state, since the entity was not in a position to pay its creditors. Invoices had not been captured, and AGSA could not determine exactly how much was owed. The amount could have been greater, or less, than the reported R976.8 million. The FPB only had performance matters to resolve for 2016/17, but was doing well in all other aspects. Stable leadership influenced performance, and the MDDA was also lacking stable leadership as an organisation.

Only BrandSA (BSA) had ‘green’ in all the areas. Other entities had ‘yellow,’ which indicated that those areas of internal control that auditors had made note of, needed to be addressed.

Looking at the situation of the SABC, with leadership instability and key vacancies at the senior level, it was no surprise to say that there was no assurance provided by senior management. This was creating a weak internal control environment at the SABC. When the new board was appointed at the SABC, it would be important that they go back on what was indicative of the internal control environment, and address issues that had been noted by AGSA.

Mr Xolani Zicwele, Acting Senior Manager, AGSA said that there were challenges with regard to Annual Performance Plan (APP) targets being aligned. There were a number of weaknesses in the FPB relating to performance management processes, and it was recommended that National Treasury (NT) intervene to provide staff with adequate knowledge to perform tasks.

With regard to the SABC, additional information had been added to the report while AGSA was compiling its report, and this would have added to reliability issues. Strategic objectives put in place needed to be aligned to indicators, and this was not happening at the SABC.

In the 2016/17 financial year, AGSA had undertaken to move away from just following the money and how it was spent, but also to include how projects were implemented. The DoC’s key project chosen for the audit was the Digital Terrestrial Migration (DTT) project, which had started in 2003 and had an estimated deadline of December 2018. There were a number of concerns regarding the project:

 

  • Lack of appropriate coordination between all relevant stakeholders in the value chain of the project;

  • No official set deadline for the migration, as December 2018 was the estimated deadline;

  • Policy uncertainties regarding the encryption of the set top boxes;

  • Lack of public awareness initiatives;

  • As of 30 May 2017, only 231 335 households had successfully registered and qualified to receive set top boxes;

  • Instability in the financial viability of the SABC cast doubt on its ability to meet future DTT targets;

  • Material issues raised on DTT grant spending at the SABC, as the total amount received over the years did not reconcile with the deferred grant balance over the year end after expenditure; and

  • The current target in the APP was not adequate to effectively implement the DTT project, as there was no link between the APP and what was expected/needed to complete the project.

Ms Muller said that there had been a decline in the financial health of the SABC and an increase in expenditure which had caused the SABC to be operating at a loss. The SABC had been receiving qualified opinions for several years and had not managed to deal with irregular expenditures, which meant that the exact amount of irregular expenditure could not be determined. Over the past three years the SABC had been receiving qualifications with regard to its being a going concern, tangible assets, irregular expenditure, payables, deferred government grants and expenses.

Mr Jacob Rakosa, Audit Manager, AGSA said that three of the seven entities, SABC, ICASA and MDDA, had findings on irregular expenditure.

Mr Zicwele said that there had been slow responses to implementing the findings of AGSA, which had resulted in poor audit outcomes. There were quite a number of entities under the DoC portfolio that were lacking strong record keeping of accounting and performance information. Consequence management was not taken on officials who incurred and or permitted irregular expenditure and fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Ms Muller said that AGSA was planning an engagement with SABC to determine what had happened since December 2016 to determine where the entity currently was and where it was heading.

AGSA’s improved audit methodology would in future focus on what mattered, and not just the money.

Discussion

The Chairperson said that whatever audit outcome would be favorable to ensure that there was service delivery was very important. For him, a clean audit without service delivery meant nothing if it did not affect the situation on the ground. The issue of leadership was critical, and leadership needed to be accompanied by skills. If officials were acting without any consequences, then the Committee might as well pack their bags and leave, because they would not be doing anything to those officials. The Committee would heed all the recommendations and ensure that they tracked all their engagements and responses to recommendations made by the Committee.

Mr Gungubele said that presentation had been very useful and assisted the Committee in doing their work of enabling oversight, governance and accountability. There was stubbornness from AGSA, where they would say it was not their responsibility, or the way one was supposed to do things. All the improvements AGSA discussed were after-effect improvements -- whatever proactivity they spoke about was how to improve the after-effect. When talking of improvement of government, AGSA needed to be together with government at the proactive, active and reactive stages because the work of government could not be discussed only after the effect.

Mr Gungubele said that he was an ordinary politician who had not been asked for his qualifications when being appointed to Parliament, but had been elected by the people. AGSA was a mechanism to help him proactively do his work to help the people. He said that there was loose use of the word ‘accrual’ in the accounting profession. He understood accrual to refer to assets, as well as expenses.

Ms Tandi Mahambehlala, Deputy Minister, asked for clarity on the point raised in AGSA’s report of the impairment of content amounting to R3 million. She understood impairment to be an amount that accumulated, and wanted to check if the impairment of content was only R3 million of if the sum would be increasing above the amount that had been reported.

AGSA Response

Ms Muller said that there were two critical areas where AGSA assisted the Committee. The first area was with the review of the APPs before they were presented to the Committee, which was a proactive intervention, since AGSA was not mandated to do so. The review of APPs was difficult, however, because entities were not submitting their APPs to AGSA, even though the Department was always submitting on time. The second area was the status of records review. AGSA would be meeting the SABC toward the end of the year in November, and early in 2018 they would be able to give the Committee feedback on the status of the SABC.

Mr Zicwele said that it was critical that when people performed tasks, they were adequately informed and equipped from a skills point of view. APPs were government-owned subject matters, and if AGSA was involved and assisting in equipping people on the ground, this would aid them better to execute their functions.

Ms Muller said that accrual was used in the context where there was a commitment to pay expenditure, but monies were not paid yet. It still needed to be reported as an expense, and therefore was a liability to the organisation that still needed to pay. She said that impairment had accrued, but the R3 million reported in the presentation was the annual amount that would be added to the amount given at the beginning of the 2016/17 financial year.

Deputy Minister Mahambehlala asked if the amount would accumulate, and not end on the R3 million reported.

Mr Zicwele said the amount would accumulate.

Mr Gungubele said that entity oversight must have its effect on the performance of entities as well.

Ms Muller said that she had not done the exercise to measure the level of performance in the DOC and matched it with the entities, but it would be an exercise she would undertake.

Department of Communications: Briefing

Ms Dlodlo said the DoC had achieved 22 of its 29 targets. Three of the targets had been overachieved by the Department; 70% of requisitions had been converted to orders within 48 hours. There had been digital awareness campaigns and stakeholder engagements.

Ms Qinisile Delwa, Acting Director-General, DoC, said that with regard to Programme One: Administration, the GCIS continued to support the DoC with Information Technology (IT), internal audit and Supply Chain Management (SCM). The DoC had 90 funded posts of which 76 were filled, and 14 were currently vacant.

Financial statements had been compiled and submitted to the Director General (DG), the Ministry, NT and AGSA, in line with section 40 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and relevant prescripts. 99% of invoices had been paid within 30 days and 96% of requisitions were converted to orders within 48 hours. During 2016/17, the Department had developed the service delivery charter which had been approved by the executive authority.

Most of the targets in Programme Two: Communications Policy, Research and Development, had not been achieved, and this was linked to cabinet processes and other processes happening at cabinet level. The Audiovisual Act had not been approved, but it had been presented to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Sectors, Employment and Infrastructure Development (ESEID), and the inputs from the Committee had been incorporated towards the final draft White Paper for approval by Cabinet. The ICASA Amendment Act had not been signed into an Act because the Information Communication Technology (ICT) White Paper approved by Cabinet had an impact on the role of ICASA in the long term. The processing of the ICASA Amendment Bill had to be held in abeyance, pending the finalisation of the integrated ICT White Paper.

Consultation on the community broadcasting support strategy was conducted late in the financial year (February 2017), and the final strategy was produced, but due to financial constraints the strategy could not be submitted to Cabinet for approval. The Department would be finalising the strategy in the 2017/18 financial year. The Green Paper on the MDDA had not been published. Finalisation depended on the Broadcasting Act, which was now referred to as the draft White Paper on Audiovisual and Digital Content Policy for South Africa.

As part of implementing the Community Broadcasting Support Strategy, the research report on Community Media Support mechanisms had been compiled and five community radio stations were provided with broadcasting infrastructure -- Mohodi FM and Vhembe FM in Limpopo Province, Mogale FM in Gauteng, Ermelo FM in Mpumalanga and Elgin FM in the Western Cape. The community radio stations that were supported had resulted in the creation of 47 permanent jobs and 99 temporary job opportunities.

Programme Three: Industry and Capacity Development had some key milestones which included conducting door to door visits, registration campaigns and activations; 69 digital broadcasting migration awareness campaigns conducted against the targeted 10 in the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and the Free State; analogue switch transmission had commenced in the core towns of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) in the Northern Cape; the Moses Kotane Institute had trained over 440 young people as installers for the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Direct to Home (DTH), devices as a result of DoC partnerships with provincial departments; 11 international stakeholder engagements were coordinated, which focused on some of the structures of BRICS, the Southern African Decelopment Community (SADC), the Zambian Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC), the G20, etc. The DoC had coordinated one multilateral partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and two bilateral partnerships with China and Russia.

In Programme Four: Entity Oversight, the DoC had held 10 forums with chief financial officers (CFOs), company secretaries, policy and regulatory forums, DG/CEO forums, and bilateral engagements between the Minister and Board members, with the aim of implementing the public entities’ governance protocols.

BrandSA had achieved 85% of its targets. The main reason for not delivering on nine key objectives were due to delays in registrations and reprioritisation of earmarked countries to implement communications programmes, while some deliverables on outcome 14 been amended to incorporate a broader objective of outcome 14. BrandSA had received a clean audit.

ICASA had achieved 74.5% of its targets. The main reasons for not delivering on 16 key targets were the backlogs emanating from the July 2016 industrial action, procurement delays, unexpected project delays, and lengthy processes to finalise regulations. ICASA had generated R455.7 million. It had received an unqualified audit opinion in 2016/17.

The FPB had achieved 86% of its targets. The main reasons for not achieving on 10 key target areas were due to the multi-year agreement on pay progression that was not accepted by theparties concerned, delays in procurement processes, and the system not being reviewed. The entity collected revenue to the value of R94.3 million. However, an unqualified audit opinion was issued for 2016/17.

The MDDA had achieved 69% of its targets. The main reasons for not delivering on 20 key targets related to projects being deferred pending the outcome of impact study projects, vacant critical positions, limited applications from community TV stations, beneficiary projects, and late reporting, as well as media awards being delayed as a result of outcomes of the study on awards for community-based media. The entity had received an unqualified audit opinion for 2016/17.

The SABC had achieved 45% of its targets. The key targets that were not achieved were financial sustainability, the launch of the “ENCORE” channel on DTT platforms, the digitisation of infrastructure and the performance contracts of employees. The reasons for not delivering on 11 key target areas related to insufficient funds, constrained economic conditions and advertiser cut backs, as well as project ‘Qinisa’ being placed on hold. The SABC had incurred a net loss of R976.8 million in the 2016/17 financial year. The broadcaster had received an adverse opinion, which was a regression from 2015/16 when the SABC had received an unqualified opinion.

The DoC had an overall budget of R1.34 billion, and had spent 99%, or R1.33 billion. Programme One had spent 99% of its R57.7 million budget; Programme Two had spent 88% of its R7.16 million budget; Programme Three had spent 74% of its R47.75 million budget; and Programme Four had spent 100% of its R1.23 billion budget.

In 2017/18, the CFO would be addressing issues related to accruals and commitments, payments not made within 30 days, understatement of receivables, contingent liabilities not disclosed, and maintenance of service level agreements (SLAs) for IT environmental controls not renewed. The Chief Director for entity oversight would be addressing key activities not performed due to lack of oversight and governance structures in SOEs, and the lack of the oversight role by the DoC relating to the transfer of funds. The Chief Director for Human Resources would be addressing monitoring of system users and system controllers’ activities, and access rights not performed on the Personnel and Salary System (PERSAL), as well as inadequate password configurations.

Government Communication and Information System (GCIS): Briefing

Minister Dlodlo said that the GCIS had received a clean audit for 2016/17, and had achieved 46 of its 48 planned targets. The overall achievement was 96%.

Ms Phumla Williams, Acting Director-General, GCIS, said that the department had distributed 21 346 million copies of Vukuzenzele throughout the country, and to those individuals with limited or no access to mainstream media. For those with visual disability, the GCIS had ensured that 7 800 copies of Vuk’uzenzele printed in Braille were available. Vukuzenzele distribution’s reach was one of the biggest in South Africa.

With regard to Programme One, dealing with administration, the GCIS had practiced sound financial management processes and procedures. The department had spent R380.1 million, or 98.7% of its allocated budget of R385.2 million in 2016/17. It had maintained a vacancy rate of 8% throughout the financial year. Human resources (HR) and financial constraints had put staff under pressure, but the organisation had still achieved 96% of its targets. A 24-hour, seven days a week wellness programme to support staff and immediate family had facilitated the wellness and healthy life styles of employees. Information systems and hardware were available more than 95% of the year, enabling the department to function efficiently. The GCIS had implemented an e-Employee Performance Management and Development System (EPMDS) for performance assessments and agreements, and a risk management committee had been established.

Challenges included a constrained fiscus and an inadequate baseline budget which restricted implementation of the mandate. There had been poor maintenance of the building and non-upgrade of IT infrastructure due to financial constraints. Vacant senior management positions contributed to challenges in the department.

Achievements in Programme Two, involving content processing and dissemination, included:

  • the production of 97 advisory research reports;

  • publishing of 38 editions of communication products – Vukuzenzele, the South African Year Book, the Public Service Manager (PSM) magazine, and government communications to deliver government information;

  • offering 1 672 language services, including editing, translations and copywriting for other government departments;

  • providing 2 758 communication services to departments – photographic, video, radio, and graphic design;

  • the South African Government News Agency (SA News) publishing over 300 stories every month, and at the end of March 2017, the SA News twitter account following had reached 99 300;

  • implementing 332 media buying campaigns for various programmes and services;

  • producing 142 sets of key messages and 129 opinion pieces.

Challenges included a lack of funding for communication campaigns; ageing equipment for media production; and the SA Year Book not fully digitised due to the high print and distribution costs.

Achievements in Programme Three: Intergovernmental Coordination and Stakeholder Management, included support for the development of 44 departmental communication campaigns to ensure alignment to the national communication framework; facilitation of 47 engagements between media and government to unpack government policies and programmes of action; coordination of 252 izimbizo events on political principles to ensure engagement with communities for participatory democracy; implementation of 4 521 outreach campaigns to reach diverse communities, particularly in rural areas; coordination of 11 cluster media briefings that provided government an opportunity to further communicate progress made on the implementation of its Programme of Action (POA); and coordination of 10 request-based communication training sessions for government departments and municipal communicators.

Challenges included inadequate communication of successes and challenges by municipalities to communities, which resulted in community protests; the frontline/coalface service presence of the GCIS human capital continued to decrease in 201/17; a limited budget had impacted on the scale and scope of development communication projects, which narrowed the scale and reach of the GCIS provincial and district offices.

Mr Keitumetse Semakane, Acting Deputy Director-General: Corporate Services, said that for the past three years GCIS had been receiving clean audits and they were happy with that. The department had spent 98.7% of their R380.1 million budget for 2016/17. Compensation of employees had had a budget of R221.63 million, of which R216.53 million, or 97.7%, was spent. Under-spending was as a result of key senior management vacancies within the department. Goods and services had a budget of R160.77 million, of which R160.76 million had been spent. Transfer of subsidies had a budget of R1.21 million, and R1.20 million had been spent. Capital assets had a budget of R1.62 million, and 99.9% had been spent. Overall, the GCIS had under-spent by R5.12 million of its R380.13 million budget.

Discussion on Doc Performance

Mr Gungubele said he had an ongoing grievance with the Department’s unstandardised APPs. He asked how effective and efficient strategic leadership had become a strategic goal, or how improved capacity was a strategic goal. He needed to learn what the DoC was talking about, because with his limited knowledge, he did not know.

Ms Van Damme praised the DoC for its clean audit, with no irregular expenditure. She said it needed to strengthen its oversight role over entities, and asked for an update on the vacancies in majority of the entities. She wanted to know about the suspension of the ICASA CEO, and if disciplinary action would be taken. She asked for an overview on the leadership of all the entities, wanted to know what was happening at the MDDA, and what the large amount of R40 million on international travel was for.

The Chairperson said that questions related to entities needed to be asked during later meetings over the following days with the specific entities.

Ms V van Dyk (DA) asked what the reason was for the delay in signing the performance agreements with the ICASA Councillors, and what three DTT targets had been audited by AGSA. She said there was a difference between AGSA’s report and what had been presented to the Committee by DoC, and she wanted to make sure what the exact number of people who were currently signed up to receive set top boxes was. Were the young people trained as installers from all the provinces, or not? She asked what it signaled to the world if South Africa supported a partnership with China, which had approved censorship of the media via WhatsApp.

Mr Kalako said AGSA had said there was no set date other than December 2018 when the DTT migration would be unfolding. How would the DoC address the issue of technology being outdated by the time DTT migration started, since set top boxes had already been procured and money already paid to service providers? Had the debate over the encryption of set top boxes been concluded so that the process was not delayed further? He asked what the industry players were doing around this issue so that the Committee could have the full picture on the matter.

Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC) referred to the DoC’s strategic goals, and said she had been sitting in the Communications Committee for many years and making many requests for information to be accessible to the deaf community through television as well, since one of the goals and objectives of the Department was to make information accessible to all citizens. She asked when the Audiovisual Act would be finalised.

Ms N Tolashe (ANC) asked whether the DoC agreed with AGSA as far as the set top boxes were concerned.

Response

Minister Dlodlo said that the Audiovisual Act would be finalised soon. It had been taken to Cabinet for approval.

A DTT migration council had been established, made up of key industry players such as network providers, private broadcasters, government and service providers, who also had a keen interest in seeing DTT enrolled and had distribution capabilities. A date had been set for 31 December 2018.

She could not agree more that deaf people’s access to television had taken long to translate into action by the SABC, and hoped one of her team members had more input to respond to the question.

There had been challenges in establishing a panel of councillors at ICASA, but the issue had been resolved and they were in the process of establishing the panel.

Ms Dlodlo said that with some of the delays they had experienced in the DTT process, they would likely not use some of the technology that had already been procured. Initiatives that had been taken included requesting that no more analogue television sets be imported into South Africa, as well supporting local businesses to offer digital technology.

Ms Dlodlo said countries had their own internal policies, but South Africa always shied away from meddling in them, so their links with China should not be seen as a problem.

The DoC had gone through a process of verification by AGSA and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) on which APPs were presented to Parliament for finalisation, and it was possible that some issues may not have been raised. It had worked within a cleaning framework as established by the DPME which was currently under review, and would look at some of the issues that Members had raised. It was a matter of the DoC taking some of the issues raised by Members back to the DPME for answers.

Ms Delwa said that she did not have all the information on hand to explain what the travel expenditure for each trip was, but there had been engagements with WIPO, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), etc, and each travel requirement had its own expenses which would be made available to the Committee.

The three targets for DTT in the APP were to achieve ten public awareness campaigns, the switch off in the local area, and reporting on citizens who had access to digital broadcasting. The Department had asked service providers to develop an application that would provide real time information between a person registering and gaining access to digital broadcasting.

Some of the trained installers were working for private companies and others had started their own installation businesses, but she was not sure what the exact figures were. They would be gathering that information.

Mr Zweli Momeka, CFO: DoC, referred to the purchase of vehicles, which had amounted to R3.8 million for the 2016/17 financial year. This had included a vehicle purchased for the Minister, as well as vehicles for the DTT process in order to lessen the expenditure of hiring vehicles, as the installers could rather use the vehicles owned by the Department.

The budget for travel and subsistence was R17.6 million, of which R14 million had been spent on domestic traveling costs for the entire Department -- to Parliament, for DTT projects, and all running costs of the Department. The fraction of the R17.6 million that was spent on international travel would be provided to the Committee.

Ms Dlodlo jokingly said that, on a lighter note, it would be cheaper if Parliament was not in Cape Town.

Members reacted in laughter to the comment.

Discussion on GCIS performance

Ms Newhoudt-Druchem said that the GCIS was an equally important department, and was responsible for giving communications or the dissemination of information. For instance, on World Aids Day, the Minister of Health had given an important address but many had no idea of what had been said because the level of literacy did not allow them access to newspapers. Therefore TV was the best means of communication, and that needed to be looked at.

Ms Van Dyk asked what measures the GCIS had to deal with hate speech, cyber bullying, harassment, etc. She asked how the government leveraged social media as a distributor of news, particularly in times of crisis or confusion.

Response

Minister Dlodlo said that the DoC had started something new by distributing government decisions every fortnight, as well as ‘government at work’ programmes on a weekly basis. All the information was made available on social media, over and above the mainstream media. Distributorship of Vukuzenzele had increased significantly over the years. World Aids Day had been widely covered and they were hoping to cover all constituencies. What they would be doing was to provide coverage to Deaf SA in order to assist their constituencies.

Ms Tasneem Carrim, Acting Deputy Director General (ADDG): Content Processing and Dissemination (CP&D) said that the GCIS had approximately six million impressions on all government social media combined, which included retweets and ‘likes.’ It was an ongoing effort, but the GCIS was trying to make use of every social media platform to deliver their news.

The GCIS had a disclaimer on their website that allowed people to make comments, but comments were monitored by an individual and if someone commented in a hateful manner, then those comments would be deleted.

Vukuzenzele was the only newspaper she was aware of that produced content also in Braille. The GCIS promoted accessibility insofar as their budget allowed.

The Chairperson congratulated Ms Carrim on her appointment as a board member of the MDDA.

The Chairperson said that News24 had reported that Ms Dlodlo had said that the SABC board would be appointed in two days, whereas she had said that SAQA had promised to finalise the issue of qualifications within two days, and that was dependent on candidates providing their matric certificates to SAQA for verification. Something needed to be done, and a written communication would be sent to the head of News24.

Committee Members were infuriated by what they referred to as sensationalist reporting.

Ms Dlodlo said that she had not said an SABC board would be appointed in two days, and the issue needed to be resolved within the Committee.

Mr Kalako said that News24 was good at reporting all the facts, but sensationalised everything. He recommended that the Chairperson issue a statement on behalf of the Committee and if News24 did not publish the statement, then it would be obvious that they had an agenda because their way of reporting was crooked.

The Chairperson agreed with that recommendation and said a letter would be written to the executive of News24, and a statement would be issued as well.

Ms Dlodlo said that she would not be in attendance on Thursday, 5 October, for the meeting with ICASA and the IFB, due to a BrandSA event on the same day. She would, however, be present for the meeting on Tuesday, 10 October, with the MDDA and SABC.

Minister on resignation of ICASA CEO

The Minister explained at length that she had written a letter to the Chairperson of the ICASA Council requesting that the CEO of ICASA be seconded to the Department, because he knew the communications sector better than most people, but unfortunately he had left to pursue a position at MTN. A few days later, she had received notification that the CEO had been suspended and this information had not been shared with her until the suspension was official. She had been taken by surprise that serious charges were put out in public against the CEO, and when she tried to get feedback from the Acting Chairperson of the Council, she had been told that the sexual harassment charge had not been laid by the ‘victim,’ but rather by a third person. At the same time, it had been rumored that the CEO needed to be fired because of the tender for the office building. Unfortunately, the former CEO had ultimately been given a settlement.

Ms Dloldlo said that in her understanding of labour relations, there was no need to offer a settlement if a person would not be a threat to the investigation, and she had therefore questioned the Acting Chairperson as to why the CEO had been suspended because she needed him, especially in light of the DTT process.

She said that the same instance had happened at the FPB.

Ms Van Dyk said that the Chairperson of the FPB board and all board members needed to account to Parliament.

The Chairperson said that the boards of ICASA and FPB would be in attendance on 10 October 2017, and Members could pose their questions there.

Ms Tolashe said that Parliament needed to revoke the law where settlements were paid out at the taxpayer’s expense without due process being followed. She asked how settlements could be paid out without the Minister’s knowledge. Entities needed to be aware that the office of the Minister was the authority that had the final word on matters that affected entities directly or indirectly. She understood that entities were independent, but the budget did not go directly to them, but rather to DoC, which then allocated to the various entities.

Ms Van Damme agreed with Ms Tolashe and said that this was the same mentality that had been occurring at the SABC, where they would pay out individuals they did not like and then appoint someone else.

The Chairperson said that entities were not independent. They needed to work with the Minister and keep her updated. Entities were also accountable to Parliament since they received public funds.

Committee’s Fourth Term Programme

The Chairperson read out the fourth term programme.

Mr Kalako proposed adoption of the programme, and Ms M Matshoba (ANC) seconded.

The meeting was adjourned.

Share this page: