SABC Education Programming: briefing

Meeting report

EDUCATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
3 June 2003
SABC EDUCATION: BRIEFING

Chairperson: Prof. S Mayatula

Documents handed out:
SABC Education Presentation

SUMMARY
SABC Education presented a progress update to the Committee on its programming and initiatives. The Committee found the presentation impressive.

MINUTES
Dr I Rensburg (Managing Director, SABC Education: Public and Regulatory Affairs) provided a progress report on SABC Education in terms of the number of its educational programmes, its audience share and the accolades it had received. Ms Y Kgame (Head of Television) continued the presentation by outlining new initiatives that had arisen due to previous suggestions by the Committee. The delegation also showed showreels of the programming initiatives and of the youth programme called "Soul Buddyz 2". The presentation concluded with an outline of the challenges ahead.

Discussion
The Chairperson was impressed that the SABC Education team had taken the committee's suggestions into account and had progressed with them. He asked how SABC Education would increase the number of Soul Buddyz clubs across the country. A member of the Soul Buddyz production team said that they were sending the Soul Buddyz packages to every primary school in South Africa. She added that they were in co-operation with provincial authorities to increase the establishment of the clubs in all provinces.

Mr. Montsintsi (ANC) was impressed with the presentation and suggested that the third sequel of the youth drama called Yizo Yizo should portray the culture of learning as one the core values in the drama. He suggested that it was distasteful to show commercials that were not promoting good values during SABC Education programmes.

Dr. Rensburg agreed and reiterated that one of the challenges of SABC education was to balance education demands with those of the media industry. He added that there were independent bodies that looked into the appropriateness of television content at certain times on the airwaves.

Mr. Moonsamy (ANC) was pleased with the presentation. He hoped that the SABC Education programmes were locally produced and locally relevant. He was critical of "Hollywood poison" in local television. He then asked if the evolution of society was one of the programmes on SABC Education.

Ms Kgame assured the Committee that most of their programmes were contextually relevant. Dr. Rensburg added that the programme called "Tobias' Bodies" provided a thought provoking series on evolution and he hoped that the following sequel would be interesting too. Once again he reiterated that one of the challenges of SABC education was to balance education demands with those of the media industry.

Mr. Vadi (ANC) suggested that SABC Education should have programmes that dealt with international political issues such as peace and democracy in Africa, the 11 September attack, the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

Dr. Rensburg responded that SABC Education's goal was to produce documentaries that dealt with politics, power, knowledge and education. He also added that other institutions such as the church should be involved too.

Ms Mentor (ANC) was pleased with the presentation. She commented that the recent war in Afghanistan and Iraq and the September 11 attack in America had traumatic effects on children. She suggested that SABC Education should have programmes to debrief children and make them able to absorb such incidents in future.

Mr. Komphela (ANC) suggested that the principles of disability in should be included in health development. He also suggested that patriotism should be added as one of the core values in "Yizo Yizo 3".

Mr. S Ntuli (ANC) suggested that the SABC should promoted altruism and patriotism by publicising the development work of ordinary people.

Ms Nhlengethwa (ANC) was pleased with the presentation. She asked if SABC Education was doing anything to make signals accessible in rural areas.

Ms Kgeme responded that SABC Education was doing its best to make the programmes available through different media.

Ms Nhlengethwa was also pleased that Umhlobo we Nene FM had exam paper revision slots. She wanted to know if other radio stations had this too.

Ms. Kgema was not sure, however, she said that SABC Education was involved in a number of radio programmes.

Ms Nhlengethwa commented that the downside of TV programmes was that children were addicted to them and did not want to do anything else except to sit in front of a television. She suggested that the "SiyaVota" series should be preceded by an ID education campaign to help first time voters to get their IDs.

Ms Kgame and Dr. Rensburg were receptive to the suggestions made by the Committee.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting.