Department of Communications & GCIS 2018/19 Annual Performance Plans plus analysis

This premium content has been made freely available

Communications and Digital Technologies

17 April 2018
Chairperson: Mr H Maxhegwana (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

The Committee received an analysis of the Department’s Annual Performance Plan from the Committee Content Advisor. Matters to consider were:
- Funding of the department has been the major challenge (since 2014). The Office of the Chairperson was engaging the Parliament Budget Office on strategies to resolve the challenge
- Approved unfunded posts impacted the capacity of DoC to deliver on its legislative mandate
- DTT deadline: the planned colloquium would assist the Committee to assess the state of readiness before the June 2019 deadline. R6.6 billion was required to successfully complete the implementation of the broadcasting digital migration policy, but the current budget sits at R48 million.
- Accountability of the DoC entities: MDDA, FPB, ICASA, SABC.

Recommendations were that the Minister should ensure that:
- DoC and entities present their plans to mitigate the Auditor General audit findings;
- DoC’s Entity Oversight Directorate plays its role in overseeing entities;
- DoC and entities consistently respond to issues raised by the Committee;
- Broadcasting services are made available to people living with disabilities, particularly the deaf community;
- DoC provided a list of international trips undertaken during the year under review;
- DoC presented the Performance Management System for ICASA Councillors;
- The FPB presents comprehensive reports on the pay-out of senior managers to the Committee

- DoC presents an entity oversight strategy to the Committee.

Auditor General South Africa spoke on its review of the 2018/19 DoC/ICASA/SABC Annual Performance Plans. Review findings were communicated to enable changes to be made. Key recommendations were:
- Management should implement adequate reviews to ensure performance indicators are well-defined.
- More training of staff on the requirements for managing programme performance information.
Key matters for noting were the senior management vacancies: the DG post was vacant at DoC; both DG and CFO posts were vacant at GCIS; only the COO post was vacant at ICASA; and at SABC both the CEO and CFO positions were vacant.

Members asked why MDDA, BSA, and FPB were not included in the APP review; if there were any partners financially involved in the digital migration project, and thus far, how much money was wasteful and fruitless expenditure; the costs for the door-to-door campaign and how many people were reached via the door-to-door and surely the community radio platform was better; reasons the SABC current corporate plan did not adopt every recommendation; why use of companies owned by people with disabilities was excluded from the SABC corporate plan.

The Department of Communications then presented its APP. Key priorities for 2018/19 are:
- Audio-Visual and Digital Content Bill
- Draft Media Transformation and Diversity Charter        
- Final draft of South African Audio-Visual Digital Content Industry Strategy        
- MDDA Amendment Bill           
- Intensive and focused digital migration public awareness campaigns across the country.
- Registration / Distribution of devices / Installations and connections of services
- Analogue signal switch-off in Free State, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape          
- Seven bilateral engagements (China, Russia, India, Lesotho, Botswana Rwanda, UK)    
- Signing of accountability instruments by all SOEs
- Effective governance and financial viability of SOEs
- Performance overview of all SOEs

Members asked how DoC intends to achieve its goals without filling important funded vacancies; how its skills development would assist youth from previously disadvantaged backgrounds; how much money was budgeted for content development and DoC approach to it; who was investigating the Facebook breach of user privacy; if the DoC Director General post had been advertised; how it would manage to switch off the analogue signal of five provinces by the end of 2018/19 given the huge funding constraint; which sectors or groups would be targeted for public awareness campaigns; if the R77 million budgeted for public awareness campaigns covered the entire country or only the five provinces; who DoC employed to do the door-to-door campaign and the criteria to recruit communities to participate in projects. In its responses, DoC spoke about the instability caused by the Ministry changes.

Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) presented its APP, saying it was allocated R400 million, with an increase of 5% and 6.7% in subsequent years. The compensation of employees was R54 million. After the budget was allocated, DoC received a revised budget letter from Treasury requiring budget cuts to Goods and Services. GCIS tried to reflect the budget cut proportionally amongst district units.

Members asked about the 65 community radio stations GCIS was working with; why no imbizos had been hosted in Eastern and Northern Cape; why the GCIS presentation was silent on digital migration; if any more work was done on addressing fake news; and how DoC assisted new MPs with constituency office support.

The Committee decided to advertise the SABC senior vacancies because they have been vacant for over six months. The senior posts in other entities would be advertised after oversight visits to them.

Meeting report

The Chairperson stated that this month was a very important one as the country lost quite a number of prominent politicians, amongst these was Mrs Winnie Mandela who was laid to rest this past Saturday and Dr Zola Skweyiya who is going to be laid to rest this coming Saturday. He is one of the people who was together with the late Chris Hani in the military wing of the ANC. This also included former MK commander, Mr Archie Sibeko, who died in England this past Saturday and will be laid to rest this coming Saturday in East London in South Africa. He hoped that the media would get interested in Archie Sibeko because he also played a prominent role in the liberation movement. This was an important month as many icons of country's liberation movement had passed away.

Mr Malema stated that the Cape Town International Airport must be named after Ms Winnie Mandela, and he felt that this was important. He also congratulated the DA for a successful congress.

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) stated that 15 community radio stations had been switched off  by Sentech due to overdue payments. Funding appears to be problematic. She appealed to the Committee to make a note of this and address it at a later stage.  

The Chairperson replied that this matter was brought to his attention, and he agreed that a serious discussion had to be had. Community radio stations cannot be shut down, Sentech must be paid and contracts must be renewed. If not, Sentech would switch them off. Although Sentech did not account to the Communications Portfolio Committee, the matter needed to be heeded by the Committee along with the Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications.

Analysis of Department 2018/19 Annual Performance Plan
The Committee Content Advisor, Mr Mbombo Malika, presented his analysis (see document). R6.6 billion was required to successfully complete the implementation of the broadcasting digital migration policy before the June 2019 deadline, but the current budget sits at R48 million.
Issues for the Committee to consider were:
- Funding of the department has been the major challenge (since 2014). The Office of the Chairperson was engaging the Parliament Budget Office on strategies to resolve the challenge
- Approved unfunded posts impacted the capacity of DoC to deliver on its legislative mandate
- DTT deadline: the planned colloquium would assist the Committee to assess the state of readiness and the impact of proliferation of technology into the government broadcasting digital migration (BDM) policy
- Accountability of the DoC entities: MDDA, FPB, ICASA, SABC.

Recommendations were that the Minister should ensure that:
- DoC and entities present their plans to mitigate the Auditor General audit findings;
- DoC’s Entity Oversight Directorate plays its role in overseeing entities;
- DoC and entities consistently respond to issues raised by the Committee;
- Broadcasting services are made available to people living with disabilities, particularly the deaf community;
- DoC provided a list of international trips undertaken during the year under review;
- DoC presented the Performance Management System for ICASA Councillors;
- The FPB presents comprehensive reports on the pay-out of senior managers to the Committee

- DoC presents an entity oversight strategy to the Committee.
- The Minister provide a detailed report responding to these recommendations
- The Minister present a report on the underfunding of DoC so the Committee can engage National Treasury.

Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) review of the 2018/19 draft APPs
Ms Jolene Pillay, Senior Manager: AGSA said that the AGSA review of APPs provided an early warning about concerns for measurability and relevance of the indicators and targets in an APP. The interim review did not entail detailed procedures where underlying systems and supporting documentation are inspected to give assurance on the verifiability of indicators and targets. The interim review was only performed on a selection of significant programmes.

Findings from the review were communicated in the 2017/18 interim management report to enable changes to be made. Findings did not have an impact on the audit conclusion on usefulness or reliability of the selected programmes for the 2017/18 year-end audits. No review was performed on the Film and Publications Board (FPB), Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and Brand South Africa (BSA) APPs in the current financial year.

Mr Xolani Zicwele, AGSA Audit Manager, spoke on the SABC Corporate Plan findings (see document). He mentioned that SABC management did not address relevance for the core function not measured in the corporate plan.

Key findings addressed by DoC, ICASA, SABC and GCIS management were:
- indicators not well defined
- indicators were not verifiable (ICASA)
- targets were not specific and measurable (DoC, GCIS, ICASA)
- technical indicator descriptions were not accurate or consistent with indicators and targets (DoC & GCIS).

Key recommendations were:
- Management should implement adequate reviews to ensure performance indicators are well-defined.
- More training of staff on the requirements for managing programme performance information.

Key matters for noting were the senior management vacancies: the DG post was vacant at DoC; both DG and CFO posts were vacant at GCIS; only the COO post was vacant at ICASA; and at SABC both the CEO and CFO positions were vacant.

Discussion
The Chairperson indicated that the Committee should not forget to take a decision on the advertisement of the vacancies at the SABC at the end of the meeting.

Ms Van Dyk said she was not impressed with the outcomes of the review. She referred to slide  and wanted to know about the facts that showed a regression for three entities with different mandates on usefulness and reliability of the performance indicators. Why were MDDA, BSA and FPB not included in the review?

The Chairperson said the questions were directed to both AGSA and DoC. Questions that AGSA cannot respond to, DoC will assist.

Ms Van Dyk asked if there were any partners involved financially in the digital migration project. Thus far, how much money was accounted for as wasteful and fruitless expenditure? She asked for the impact of the pending court cases on the BDM programme. What were the costs for the door-to-door campaign? How many people were reached in totality through the door-to-door and community radio platforms?

Ms P Van Damme (DA) said the AG mentioned that the SABC was not given a guarantee by Treasury. She asked if the negotiations were still ongoing or not, and the current status of SABC's financial stability.

Mr M Kalako (ANC) asked the AG if any reasons were given by the SABC for not responding and including the issue the AG raised into the SABC final corporate plan.  

Mr N Xaba (ANC) asked how management decided which targets to perform an review of. Were they grouped according to priority or was a different process employed?

Responses
Ms Pillay responded that in slide 7 the calculation was purely based on the entities in the portfolio which had findings on the usefulness and reliability. ICASA, SABC and MDDA had issues with reliability; hence the percentage was the same percentage although they had different mandates. On slide 12, as indicated AGSA usually conducts the interim review on the interim APP. Based on the discussion and feedback from the Committee, the AGSA team understood the concerns around those entities and the comment was duly noted and it will be considered in the next round of the review.

It is important to note that when AG did the APP review, it was not based on the actual audit of performance. AG got a draft of the APP and reviewed it in terms of whether the indicators were appropriately outlined for management, and how the targets related to the indicator to ensure that it was reliable.  

On a SABC guarantee from Treasury, AG was limited in following up on such a process. Unfortunately she was unable to comment on the matter.

On which programmes to choose to review in the APP, AGSA follows a sample basis through a selection of the significant programmes and indicators and targets to audit. There is a consideration of material programmes as well as the qualitative aspects, whether they are of significance to the public and government priorities; thereafter whether something is qualitatively and significantly material – this is the process followed in the selection of which programmes to choose to review.  

Mr Xaba asked why the number of companies controlled and owned by people with disabilities was excluded in the targets of the SABC corporate plan.

Ms Pillay replied the reason was because in a discussion with management it was indicated that those were not key priorities from a strategic plan perspective to be included in the APP. However, if they are not prioritised in the current year, there is a need for AGSA to ascertain when will that happen.

AGSA’s role was to look at information and report on the information that was reviewed but it did not have the same view as management on government priorities. From an auditing perspective, AGSA might want to raise something as a finding so that management can bring it in at some point rather than this year. That is a key objective that could be met in the long term, even though it may not be met in the short term.

On slide 22, management indicated that it would adjust the ENE but it was not a strategic objective and not everything would make its way to the APP.

Department of Communications report-back on matters arising from previous meeting
Ms Kedibone Phetla, Director: Strategic Planning and Performance Monitoring at DoC, gave a progress report on the Committee oversight requests arising from the 13 March meeting:
- DoC should make available the discussion paper on Media Transformation and Diversity;
- DoC should provide a database of DTT installers per province; and
- DoC should provide a economic classification details for DoC programmes in its Quarter 2 Report.
All these requests were completed and submitted to the Committee on 19 March 2018.

He gave feedback on the previous audit findings, saying that IT management and monitoring as well as accruals and commitments findings were resolved. On SOE oversight and governance structures, DoC has capacitated the unit to be able to perform its mandate and accounting instruments were awaiting approval. In terms of confirmation of contingent liabilities, DoC is currently requesting confirmation on a quarterly basis.

Department of Communications on its 2018/19 Annual Performance Plan
Ms Kedibone Phetla, DoC Director: Strategic Planning and Performance Monitoring, outlined the targets for each programme (see document).

Key priorities for 2018/19 are:
- Audio-Visual and Digital Content Bill
- Draft Media Transformation and Diversity Charter        
- Final draft of South African Audio-Visual Digital Content Industry Strategy        
- MDDA Amendment Bill           
- Intensive and focused digital migration public awareness campaigns across the country.
- Registration / Distribution of devices / Installations and connections of services
- Analogue signal switch-off in Free State, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape          
- Seven bilateral engagements (China, Russia, India, Lesotho, Botswana Rwanda, UK)    
- Signing of accountability instruments by all SOEs
- Effective governance and financial viability of SOEs
- Performance overview of all SOEs

On South African local audio-visual and digital content strategy, it was acknowledged that whilst in the recent past significant progress in the increase of local content has been recorded; there is an urgent need to implement a coherent strategy for localising content. SA cannot move into the new digital broadcasting environment while being dependent on foreign produced and sourced content, hence the White Paper. The DoC would ensure that content was easily accessible across the ever-expanding platforms. The content development strategy will support independent producers, SMMEs and allow for entry by new innovative content providers. SA will then be able to take up regional, continental and global opportunities arising from the introduction of new digital platforms.

On Programme 3 on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) roll-out project:
• The BDM programme is underway, it will migrate the country from analogue to digital signal
• This will allow the 800 and 900MHz spectrum bands to be released and ensure universal access to information to many South Africans
• DTT project will set the country on a higher growth trajectory
• Available set-top boxes (STBs) and other DTT-related devices will be installed and distributed across the provinces situated along the borderline with neighbouring countries
• Main objective is to migrate all TV owning households as analogue signal transmissions will be switched off in phases during the MTEF period (in five provinces in the next year)
• A baseline budget of R77 million has been allocated over the medium term for the DTT project rollout.
• Department will be taking on the coordination role.

On Programme 4 on SOE oversight, DoC will develop accountability instruments and MOIs. More attention will be given to to leadership stability and financial sustainability.

Key projects from 2018/19 were:
- Intensive and focused digital migration public awareness campaigns across the country
• Registration Campaigns
• Distribution of devices 
• Installations and connections of services
- Analogue signal switched-off in five provinces
• Free State, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape Provinces.

Discussion
Ms Van Dyk asked how DoC intends to achieve its goals and targets without filling the important vacancies that are funded.

On slide 23 on content development, if the objective is to align with the NDP, how is DoC going to fit the unemployed into the programme to ensure that they obtain skills to supply content? There are a lot of kids in previously disadvantaged communities. How is DoC going to ensure that the skills development would assist them as well. She asked how much money was budgeted for content development and how DoC intended to approach it. Above all else, she wanted to know what was the programme doing for poor people – how is the programme going to uplift the poor?

She noted that there is not a huge budget for entity oversight. She referred to the Facebook breach of user privacy and almost 60 000 South African were violated by this. She asked who was investigating this and which parliamentary committees would be involved.

Ms Van Damme said the vacant Director General post was very concerning and asked if it has been advertised. On digital migration, DoC must stop lying to the public because it will not be able to reach the target with the R48 million budget when it actually required R6 billion for the entire project. The plan that five provinces are going have their analogue signal switched off in 2018/19 was a mirage. Every year the Committee receives the same information from DoC but it never happens. It is time DoC was honest about it because the money for the project is not available.

In the presentation there is a great sense of déjà vu. Each year activities are outlined but nothing happens. She asked for an honest assessment of the digital migration project as the Committee is told each year DoC will meet the target but it is not achieved. More detail would be useful about the analogue signal switch-off.

The Chairperson said that even with the five provinces that will be switched off, how was it going to be achieved?

Mr Xaba asked for more details on the Digital Migration Advisory Council (DMAC). He asked for the targeted groups to be reached with the public awareness and registration campaigns.

Mr Kalako said that the Committee was aware that DoC was not allocated sufficient funding for the project but how far is DoC in the negotiations of this matter, otherwise this migration is not going to happen. Related to that, there was an interim report about the creation of a structure with stakeholders to address the problem of shortage of resources – how far is that process?

Thirdly, the SABC interim board went to Treasury and it was told to come back with a plan. The Committee requested the plan but it never came forth. Lastly, on the number of bilateral agreements, are all those countries mentioned good examples that can be followed on digital migration?

Ms M Matshoba (ANC) asked if the R77 million allocated for the roll-out of the DTT project was to cover the entire country or the five provinces outlined in the presentation.

Responses
The Acting Director General, Thabiso Thiti,replied that the concern raised about community broadcasters' signal being switched off by Sentech was very worrisome. DoC received notice of the matter last week and met with Sentech on Friday. The Minister is attending to the matter to expedite resolving it. The approach will not only look at the short term payment of the debt but also include creating sustainable broadcasting and effective issuing of licences to those radio stations that have sustainable plans; as well as pricing because radio communities have complained about that – that there were imbalances in pricing.

Mr Thiti said that DoC has been in an unfortunate situation due to the turnover of political heads because the previous Minister looked at the challenges faced by community broadcasting but the current minister is focusing on coordinating it. This creates instability in DoC.

Mr Thiti acknowledged that each time DoC meets with the Committee, SOE oversight is raised sharply. Due to budget constraints, DoC could appoint only five officials to the unit. They are trying to make do with the available resources. The issue is capacity and development of a strategy that will ensure the unit is proactive and reactive and identifies challenges before the end of each quarter. The entity oversight strategy has been drafted and will soon be presented to the Committee for guidance.

On policy, DoC is going to look at whether the entities apply their policies and implement them correctly. DoC wants SOE company secretaries to look at the risks faced by the entity along with the implementation of policies. The internal audit function sits with SOE management to ensure challenges are addressed and constantly looks at how those challenges can be best addressed.  

DTT project partnerships were covered in the presentation. DoC went further to partner with municipalities and engaged with the broadcaster to see how they can help with mobilization and advertisements.

Due to the changes in the Ministry, the Digital Migration Advisory Council (DMAC) died at the time Minister Kubayi took over but now that relationship has been revived to assist in marketing and awareness campaigns. In addition, DMAC has made an application that will deal with live applications in indigenous places. As much as there is insufficient money, DoC will continue to foster strategic partnerships to solicit some support.

On community radio stations, DoC was utilising the GCIS platform and it is currently engaging with 65 community radio stations. The number was 65 as a result of some radio stations not complying but the DoC is reaching out to them to assist them on how they can clean up their books in terms of compliance.

DoC has reached about 6 million listenership on radio stations; but a more detailed report would be furnished. In terms of door-to-door campaign, DoC did a study in Free State and discovered that people felt that it was helpful to engage with the people face to face, although this was the case, radio stations were being utilised.

The budget is very limited, and consequently that makes DoC under-staffed. If DoC cannot meet the research and capacity requirements for the entities it regulates, it will end up regulating what has already been implemented. The capacity is a real concern and it needs some serious consideration.

Ms Dikeledi Thindisa, DoC Chief Financial Officer, replied that the R77 million allocation would only be utilised for awareness because DoC was only responsible for awareness in terms of the DTT project. The project is shared between DoC and the Department of Telecommunications because it includes equipment such as set-top boxes. The required R6 billion for the DTT project is indeed not available. Hopefully in the National Treasury joint session with the Department of Telecommunications, it will be considered.

Mr Fhatuwani Mutuvhi, Chief Director: Digital Migration at DoC, replied that the supply of set-top boxes was still a challenge. With respect to the prioritisation of provinces, based on the availability of funding DoC will provide a macro plan, currently it did not have devices. However, Free State and North West have been identified first to roll out the registration by the end of June. Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces will follow by the end of the year so that DoC can do installation of devices; it registers people first and then connects the households. The last provinces with no potential interference would be Gauteng and Western Cape. DoC targeted to have a full registration by the following financial year in those provinces. Unfortunately, funding availability remains an challenge which affects the availability of decoders for households that have already registered. The partnership with municipalities was bearing fruit in some areas. He noted that the area of focus was channelling more energy to partnerships and broadcasters.

Mr Thiti replied that the Facebook matter can be discussed jointly with DTPS because it overlaps with its mandate. The issue not only concerned Facebook; there were a number of other incidents such as cell phone personal data used without people’s consent. DoC will certainly look into the matter.

The Director General appointment has been a stop-and-go process but changes always occur. This is a matter that needs to be taken up to executive authority level. It is important to note that the digital migration project is faced with serious challenges. These needed to be considered with the Minister and reflect on whether the service delivery model was going to assist in reaching the target. The challenges at USASSA and at companies contracted to manufacture the set-top boxes were adding more strain to the project – all of these issues needed to be considered and dealt with seriously.  

Mr Collin Mashile, DoC Chief Director: Broadcasting Policy, replied that the intention was to move the content away from the big three provinces to other provinces because it has potential for local economic development and job creation.

Follow up questions
Ms Van Dyk asked the Committee to request a report on the awareness programme with specific reference to the door-to-door process. She asked if it was possible to get the programme intended for each province. Thirdly, where did the DoC get people to do the door-to-door campaign and were they adequately trained? DoC mentioned that people like the interaction of door-to-door. Community radio is set up to create a platform for people to engage with, so why would DoC go the more expensive route if it can do this through community radio? She asked how many people were reached through the door-to-door process.

She appealed that DoC instruct Treasury not to approve any travel expenses for overseas trips because there were financial constraints already.

Ms Matshoba asked what criteria was used to recruit the communities to participate in the projects. Secondly, there are many members in those constituencies and how does DoC communicate with those constituencies about the programmes that are being implemented.

Responses
Dr Motuvhi replied that the door-to-door campaign is the most cost effective measure without funding and limited resources. It was piloted through forging partnerships with municipalities through the offices of the mayors and municipal managers and the utilisation of the services of community development workers. Those workers were brought in and trained before deployment.

The DoC realised a registration of 23 000 households thus far in Free State and North West; and through the district and metros it established committees where a municipality would send three officials to be part of the engagements and discussions and they would go back to their constituencies and bring in the local installers. Through the community development workers and the established committees was able to reach these numbers.

For radio stations, DoC was running a call-in programme based on the small funding available after the reallocation in January. In February and March, it ran a small programme with the public; consequently it was able to reach quite a number of people and understood the issues on the ground.

On the identification of the five provinces, it is through the steering committee DoC determined those provinces. The first two were based on the current available devices, the other provinces were determined based on their proximity to the border where signal or connection might be problematic.

Acting Director General Thiti said DoC would need to report on the lessons drawn from the current approach. He appealed that DoC needs to go back to draw on the lessons and successes so that it can deduce the best approach going forward. There is a need to talk about amplifying awareness to ensure that DoC sent messaging beyond door-to-door in order to heighten the communication through broadcasters. He said that the advice on international travel was heeded.

Ms Matshoba asked if the door-to-door campaign was contracted from any company.  

Mr Xaba said the Fifth Parliament is coming to an end, so what role is DoC playing in assisting the Minister to report on the good work that has been done.

Mr Thiti replied that DoC did not outsource the campaign. The door-to-door engagement was done through the municipalities and the steering committees. DoC understood that the municipalities have a database.

Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS) 2018/19 Annual Performance Plan
Ms Phumla Williams, GCIS Acting Director General, spoke about the APP. She noted that some of the vacancies have not yet been filled but at a senior level quite a few have been filled. She provided a situational analysis that spoke of limited fiscal resources. For example in Programme 2 Content Processing and Dissemination, GCIS could afford only what is outlined in the presentation. However, it has managed to reprioritise producing 22 editions annually of the Vuk’uzenzele  newspaper. Previously it produced only 12 but in order to be regular with current information, DoC has been able to publish twice a month to keep South Africans informed. The ultimate goal is to produce a weekly edition. Every Friday there is an issue of the online My District which speaks to stories written by government communicators. GCIS plans to issue an electronic edition every Friday.

Mr Becker, GCIS Acting Chief Financial Officer, said GCIS had been allocated R400 million for 2018/19 with an increase of 5% and 6.7% in subsequent years. They are all inflation related, but the second one was below inflation. Compensation of employees was allocated R54 million. After the MTEF budget was allocated, GCIS received a revised budget letter from Treasury implemented budget cuts on Goods and Services. This had an impact. GCIS had tried to reflect the budget cut proportionally amongst district units.

Discussion
Ms Van Dyk asked for a list of the 65 radio stations that GCIS is working with. It seems that there was nothing happening in the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape in terms of Imbizos, and asked why. She asked why the presentation was silent on digital migration. One would have thought that the GCIS would be the main communicator for this.

Ms Van Damme was interested in the GCIS strategy on fake news. It was briefly discussed how it is identified, but she asked if there was any more work done on it. There is a very important role for GCIS to play about encouraging voting.

Ms Williams replied that the list of community radio stations that has been circulated to Members. If there was a way, all radio stations would be utilised, but GCIS could only work with what its infrastructure allowed and those that want to plug into its platforms. Some of the radio stations are purely religious and have no interest in participating. Others want to be part of the platform but do have tax compliance. Hopefully, Sentech’s intervention will assist because GCIS would like to with with them.

On imbizos, GCIS provided the information on the imbizos that took place during that reporting period. In the APP, it only provided the number but the information can be broken down and submitted to the Committee at a later stage. The venues were guided by what the communities wanted.

On the GCIS raising public awareness about the DTT project, Ms Williams replied that most departments would run their own public awareness campaigns and in this case the DoC ran its own campaign, but GCIS would assist where it is needed.  The IEC has a huge budget for the elections but GCIS only collaborates with it to assist with platforms for a much wider reach.

On fake news, GCIS employs a service provider to assist with this as it is able to scan the environment. However, that is not adequate because by the time the service provider presents information to GCIS on fake news, that information would have already gone viral for about a day or two. There is work in progress in addressing this as soon as possible when fake news occurs.

Ms Matshoba said the DG did exactly what was requested in the previous engagement. However, she voiced her concern about the future of these events; she did not see any imbizo that took place in the Eastern Cape whilst in other provinces, the GCIS was visible about six times.

Mr Xaba asked how DoC assists new parliamentary constituency offices and offers support. He was asking on the basis that he was still new and establishing a constituency office.

The DG replied that the Eastern Cape and Limpopo were the best provinces that DoC works very well with. The relationships that have been established make the programmes much easier to unfold.

SABC senior vacancies
The Chairperson said six months has passed and perhaps it was about time the Committee took a decision to advertise the available vacancies because things were not looking good. He suggested that the Committee should go ahead with the adverts for the three vacancies.

He said proposals for filling MDDA and FPB vacancies would be made only after their oversight visit. So for now the Committee should focus on the SABC.

The Committee approved the advertisement of the vacancies.

Committee Programme
After consideration, the Committee adopted its second term committee programme without amendment.

The meeting was adopted.
 

Share this page: