GCIS & MDDA 2020/21 Quarter 3 & 4 performance; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Opening Remarks by the Chairperson

The Chairperson welcomed the Members, Deputy Minister, Department delegation from Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) and Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA).

This virtual meeting was to consider the quarterly reports of GCIS and MDDA. Members were reminded about the formalities and rules of virtual meetings as adopted by the House. They were asked to cooperate to maximise the virtual platform by switching off their microphones (mics) and video feed if they are not the ones speaking, to avoid distracting the speaker – considering the sensitivity of background sounds. Unmuting the mic and switching on video would only be done where a Member is recognised by the Chairperson and then allowed to speak. Video would be switched off where a Member was experienced connectivity challenges to maximise bandwidth. For point of orders, Members would first need to be recognised by the Chairperson, before unmuting their mic. The platform would be used for raising hands to be recognised; the chat platform would be used to indicate that one wants to be recognised.

He welcomed the Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Ms Thembi Siweya, and said that the Committee was also expecting a new Minister, Mr Mondli Gungubele, and the Deputy Minister, Ms Pinky Kekana, who may not be new to the Committee, given their previous responsibilities, but new in the sense of the new responsibility currently deployed. The Chairperson had been assured that the Deputy Minister Siweya would be leading the delegation in this meeting, politically. The Minister and the Deputy Minister were welcomed in absentia. The Committee was looking forward to hearing from the Minister. In future, he would be given the opportunity to make his first address to the Committee to understand where he would want to take the work of the Department from where the late former Minister Mthembu left off.

During the last recess, the Committee lost Mr C Mackenzie (DA). The Committee is poorer in his absence. As a Member of the Committee, Mr Mackenzie always put the interest of South Africans on the forefront across political lines. He was a team player who made valuable contributions to Committee. In honour of him, and other late Members of Parliament, like Joyce Maluleke, who committed to the country, one way to remember them is for the Committee to deliver during the performance assessments, and not betray what the Committee stands for.

As the approach is, the Deputy Minister, as the political head, would be asked to give a political overview to update the Committee on any current matters of interest, before introducing the presenters from the Department. Since this was the only item on the agenda, and understanding that the Members would be travelling during the day, the Department and the entity were asked not be make lengthy presentation because Members already received the presentations and were able to go through them in their own time. The allocated time for presentations was set to 25 minutes, with 15 minutes for the Department and the 10 minutes for the entity. Members would then ask questions and make recommendations on the way forward.

Apologies

Apologies were received from the Minister, who was attending a Cabinet meeting, and the Director-General, who was accompanying the Minister. Deputy Minister Kekana was unable to attend due to medical reasons. Apologies from Committee Members were received from Ms Z Majozi (IFP), Mr T Gumbu (ANC), and Mr V Pambo (EFF).

Remarks by Deputy Minister

The Deputy Minister recognised the Chairperson, Committee Members, the team from GCIS, led by, the Acting Deputy Director-General: Intergovernmental Coordination and Stakeholder Management, Mr Michael Currin; Board Chairperson of the MDDA, Mr Hlengani Mathebula; CEO of MDDA, Ms Zukiswa Potye; and the team from the Ministry, led by the Chief of Staff.

She expressed that she missed coming to the Committee, and the Department is always excited to appear before the Committee. As indicated the apologies, Minister Gungubele was in Cabinet. He would have loved to be in the meeting since it would be his first appearance before the Committee, from when he was appointed. Hopefully the Minister and Deputy Minister would make it in the next meeting.  

The presentation from GCIS and MDDA would give details of the third and fourth quarter report of 2020/21 performance. Mr Currin would lead the GCIS presentation, and before the MDDA report, the Board Chairperson would be asked to give a briefing.

Briefing by GCIS

Mr Currin expressed condolences on behalf of the GCIS Management to the Committee for the loss Mr Mackenzie, who was a strong influence on the work of the Department. He offered an apology from the Acting Deputy Director for Content Processing and Dissemination, Ms Zanele Mngadi, who was unable to attend due to illness.

Mr Currin gave an overall brief of the work of Department during the period, while Ms Gcobisa Soci, Acting Deputy Director-General: Corporate Services, spoke on the statistics of achievements. Finally, Ms Nomkhosi Peter, Chief Director: Management, presented the financial report.

The GCIS presented its performance and expenditure profile for the third and fourth quarters, for the period October 2020 to March 2021. This period was characterised by high levels of COVID-19, eager anticipation for vaccine roll-out programme and fear in the public related to job security and COVID-19. GCIS continued its communication programme on key priorities such as COVID-19, the Economic Reconstruction Recovery Programme (ERRP) and Gender Based Violence and Femicide campaign, together with key departments. This was done through platforms, including the government newspaper (Vuk’uzenzele), government website, government news agency, knowledge-sharing webinars, community radio; mainstream media, including TV, radio, online, billboards, SMS, and others.

On governance issues, as of 31 December 2020, the Department had spent 77% of the budget, including the additional R60 million allocated for COVID-19 public awareness. On the governance targets, in the third quarter only one target was not met, and in the fourth quarter only four targets were not met. There was an overall performance rate of 98% in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, 99.7% off all compliant invoices were paid within 30 days, underachieving by 0.3%. The target was underachieved due to exposure of some supply chain management (SCM) officials who had to work from home and got exposed to COVID-19, which impacted access to certain transversal systems that cannot be accessed offsite. In the fourth quarter, this target was underachieved by two percent.

Briefing by MDDA

The Deputy Minister asked the MDDA Board Chairperson, Mr Mathebula, to make brief remarks before the presentation.

Due to the board chairperson’s connectivity problems, the presentation went ahead.

Ms Zukiswa Potye, MDDA CEO, began by offering her condolences to the Committee on the loss of Mr Mackenzie. She said that he was very robust and left no stone unturned in asking questions. She also expressed that it is always difficult to speak after Mr Currin because he is very flamboyant, articulate, and knowledgeable. He sets the bar high.

She presented the report for the third and fourth quarters. During the period, MDDA tried to fill the many vacancies dating back to 2017 and 2018. From the second to the third quarter, the vacancy rate was at 7.3%. The entity lost an HR of staff, who was only six months into the job. There are plans to make up for where the Employment Equity Status is low. Some positions are being remodelled to be filled. In the third quarter, 11 out of 13 targets were achieved, representing 85%. The missed targets were under Grant and Seed Funding, and Partnerships, Public Awareness and Advocacy. The reason for the missed target on Grants is that the Board and Management have become robust to ensure that only fully compliant projects are funded, in line with the 2019 Grant Funding Policy. Partnerships, Public Awareness and Advocacy was also not achieved fully because of restrictions of the pandemic in physical meetings. MDDA has tried hard to work on digitising some of the targets. A clean audit was achieved for 2020. In the third quarter, one target was missed, following a consultative conference that was held in August 2020 with the sector to develop Terms of Reference for a research on sustainability to develop a sustainability model. MDDA is turning 20 years in January 2023, hopefully the Sustainability Model can be unveiled by then. The target on Digital Migration Strategy was concluded in the quarter, but it appears as a missed target because there remained approval by the Board. That has now been approved, and there is a working plan.

Mr Mathebula apologised for the earlier connectivity challenge. In ensuring stability, the Minister and the DG have confirmed that they are in the process of finalising the Broadcast Representative and the Print Representative into the Board. Mr Moshoeshoe Monare ends his term on 16 September 2021. If this position is not filled by then, the Board will be incomplete and there will be challenges in how it can function. There are also three vacancies, which the Portfolio Committee is processing. MDDA will appreciate if these are filled to allow the Board to function. There is a process for Parliament to reconsider the MDDA Act, which is now 20 years old, and it is not geared for the current digital space. This process will be led by Parliament and GCIS. There is need to realign the role of print and broadcast. As was presented by the CEO, a lot of money that MDDA gets comes from broadcast and not much from print. As it is in the Act, it is optional for print sector to assist MDDA, while it is mandatory for broadcast. The two parties do not act in the same manner – there is not much enthusiasm from print, but there is support from broadcast. The Board is appealing that there should be alignment between print and broadcast for MDDA to be able to fulfil its responsibilities.

Discussion

Ms P Faku (ANC) expressed condolences to the Mackenzie family for the loss of a remarkable leader. The Committee learned a lot from him, and the hope is that, in honour of his memory, the Committee would continue to carry out its responsibility of oversight in all government departments and entities for which he had a great passion.

She said that the Committee appreciates the Ministry for the great work being done by both GCIS and MDDA; they have raised the bar high from the beginning to present. Members appreciate the dedication. However, there are areas where targets have not been achieved. Members encourage the Department and entity to achieve these.

She noted that the MDDA Board Chairperson said there are some Board Members whose terms have lapsed. There is now a process that Parliament is undergoing to ensure that those positions are filled. Parliament wants to fast-track this process. Members understand the failure to reach the full potential of some targets like outreach, as they have been affected by COVID-19. However, this is the second year the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, there should be innovative ways found to carry out outreach. Even government no longer goes out to outreach, but there are methods to reaching certain targets.

She thanked MDDA for the clean audit but pointed out that the Grant Funding target was not reached, which is a problem. The Committee would like to see 100% target achievement, knowing that there is a capable team that can do the work. They have reached 95%, yet 5% is allotted to a person whose application was not processed because of COVID-19. As Government, there is need to move away from excuses.

On GCSI non-payments of invoices after 30 days, she said that this is unacceptable. This should be done in a proper way. While understanding that there is COVID-19, the Committee cannot sit and allow this to happen. There must be compelling reasons as to why the payments were not made.

What happened in KZN in the past month has made the country more alert. The Committee urges the new team, led by Minister Gungubele, Deputy Minister Siweya and Deputy Minister Kekana, to ensure that GCIS works in order that Government communication is centralised in the Presidency, so that whatever happens, the President must take a stand. The Committee thanks the former Minister, who was acting during the time.

She said that information should be centralised. One thing that the COVID-19 period has taught is that when the President speaks, everyone gets excited. In the future, on all issues that the government has pronounces, GCIS must come back after three months with an update on what has been achieved. That way, people will know what the Government is doing. The Committee is happy with the women that are leading in both entities – the DG of GCIS, Ms Phumla Williams, and MDDA CEO, Ms Potye.

On Vuk’uzenzele, she said that she and the late Mr MacKenzie had not seen the point of this newspaper anymore, but GCIS is of the view that this is still necessary. The Committee hopes there can be new and more innovative ideas of sending communication to people than the Vuk’uzenzele. She does not have access. There can be the COVID-19 pamphlets where people are receiving snapshots of what is happening. Members appreciate the good work by the Department and the entity.

Ms N Kubheka (ANC) welcomed the new Minister and Deputy Minister in their absentia. The Committee is happy and well prepared to work with them in the Department. They are very lucky to have the teams at GCIS and MDDA, who are willing and prepared to deliver for the Country.  The Committee appreciates the support given to the Department by Deputy Minister Siweya.

She offered condolences on the passing of Mr Mackenzie, who did everything with passion, including offering positive criticism for the Department to correct its challenges. She offered the condolences to the MDDA on the passing of one of their staff members. It is painful because she was in the position for only six months and was lost due to COVID-19. Both presentations by GCIS and MDDA give motivation to the Committee, although there are some hiccups.

In the third quarter, GCIS did not manage to get to that 100% on invoice payments. The real reason was a little beyond on their side to try to cover that 0.3%. However, the Committee is aware that, for the targets were not achieve, the Department has an action plan for corrective measures. Hopefully there will be an improvement in the coming quarters.

On spending, Members are happy that the Department is pushing, especially on the challenges raised. They have managed to work on the R60 million, although not everything was spent. While the Department has raised their challenges of why they did not spend, the Committee is encouraging GCIS to spend everything and have enough budget to perform their duties. The Committee does not expect to see underspending in the next quarters; GCIS must try to push harder.

On governance, especially vacancies, the Department has managed to work and have tried to balance in all races. They are trying to work on not leaving anyone behind, including those with disabilities, coloureds, and Indians. The Committee appreciates that there is a small percentage left; the Department should work harder to close those percentages.

The Committee appreciates MDDA’s clean audit. This needs to be maintained. The Committee appreciates that the Board is trying to push to support the institution. Hopefully, by September, other vacancies need to be open. The Committee will try to close those gaps so that the Board must continue working and not be frustrated with the issue of their quorum.

She said that Members appreciate that the Deputy Minister wants to have a sustainable module to assist MDDA. While the Committee may sometimes appear very harsh, MDDA and GCIS are evidently progressing and should be commended for their efforts.

On Vuk’uzenzele, she commented on Ms Faku’s remarks – that there is need for caution, as there are people in rural areas who read it. COVID-19 information needs to be constantly updated to see if the country is going forward. Additionally, it is important to accommodate everyone. Members will be watching and assisting the entity where there are challenges in the targets that were not achieved. The Committee does not expect the entity to appear in the next quarter with the very same challenges. There must be people who can assist in resolving those challenges.

The Chairperson said that it was important to emphasise the point on payment of SMMEs or invoices within 30 days. What is notable is that, in quarter three, there was 0.3% and 2% in quarter four. This is a regression. In looking at results and impact on the ground, it is worrying that this may affect SMMEs, and that 2% can be quite critical for those that need to proceed to the next level of life, and are depending on payment of such invoices. The Committee is raising this so that the Department can work on balancing the clean audits with delivery on the ground. There should be no regression in that regard.  By the time the Committee is dealing with quarter three and quarter four, it is already in the other financial year, for some of the corrective measures to be kicked in.

Another area of interested is where there could be no launch because of the gaps in gender and geographic spread in the sector. The Committee is considering the importance because it is about transformation of the sector. Can the Department give an indication of whether headway is being made in that regard, so that the Committee can assure South Africans that the expected transformation is not delayed, given the time it has taken to get back on track?

The Committee appreciates that MDDA is maintaining a clean audit. Members earlier congratulated MDDA on this. As the CEO presented, there was a time when anything to do with MDDA was more of problems. This are now getting back to normality through the interventions that have been made, especially on Sentech where community radio stations have been unable to pay. More importantly, if MDDA has not met the target on the sustainability model and research, the question becomes whether the interventions being made at this point will be sustainable. This is because money could be spent, yet some of these stations will not be able to pick up from a point of self-sustainability. What mechanisms are being used in the intervening period whilst waiting for the research to confirm the sustainability model? What is the entity doing to deal with that?

Deputy Minister’s Responses

The Deputy Minister (DM) thanked the Committed for engaging with the reports. The Department has never necessarily had a problem with the Committee; in fact, the Committee has been giving the Department ideas of how to work and improve. When the current Minister took over from the late Minister Mthembu, in relation to MDDA and GCIS, there has been an improvement because of the Committee’s ideas. The Department agrees that there is need to sort out the 30-day payment process. With COVID-19, it is even worse because it means historically disadvantaged businesses are also being killed. This is something that the team is striving to correct daily. The Department is committed to filling the current vacancies. Once there are filled, there will be employer-employee targets and be able to hold people accountable. Correcting the vacancies in GCIS will ensure that there are contracts, and the team can then improve. The Board Chairperson of MDDA spoke about vacancies for people in the Board, whose term is coming to an end. The entity is requesting the Committee to begin the process of filling those vacancies so that they can continue to appear before the Committee with positive results. The entity is relying on the Committee since they have always listened and improved when the Committee makes recommendations.

On the comments from Ms Faku about the effectiveness of Vuk’uzenzele, the DM said that GCIS continues to have this conversation with the Department of Communication. Members must understand that, as much as there is a desire to be innovative, attention also needs to be given to the access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT). While not being personal to Ms Faku, her earlier comment was that she used to receive it in high school but she was no longer receiving it. However, this is because the Member has grown in her life. She gets government information as a Member of Parliament, and she has access to ICT. Yet, the reality is that there is an impact that is happening with the newspaper. There are annual reviews done on where to place it, and who the target is.

Members of Parliament (MPs) are not the target because, in the morning, they can tap their phones and get information. The people that the newspaper is targeting are not those in the current path of growth that MPs are in. Members would be interested in making a call to the Department to ask about this specifically. The DM said that she gets many text and WhatsApp messages on her personal phone, every day, of people who received Vuk’uzenzele. The stories are not only covered by national, but even provinces, through the offices of the Premiers who send information, and the Department then decides where to take the newspaper. The reality is that there can be innovation and online activities, but there is still a constituency being served by the hardcopy print, and the Department continues to receive high feedback. The DM indicated that Mr Currin would respond further on this and give more in detail on issues raised by the Chairperson.

GCIS Responses

Mr Currin agreed with the Deputy Minister that the Department appreciates the wise counsel of the Committee and always looks forward to this engagement with great pleasure. It is a place where the Departments gets firm direction, a push and guidance. The Department assures Members that written communication will be sent to all GCIS staff across the country, of what the team experienced in this Committee meeting, so that the wisdom and views of the Committee get pushed through to all employees. An internal story is done whenever the Department appears before Committee, as a way of motivating and affirming staff. As such, a lot of the observations from Members are taken on board.

Mr Currin indicated that Ms Gcobisa Soci would respond to what the Department is doing in dealing with a 30-day payment period moving into the 21/2022 financial year for the Business Continuity programme. One of the relief measures was a partnership with State Information Technology Agency (SITA), because some of the systems are not accessible on laptops, as they must be part of the proper Government closed system. However, some of the offsite staff had to be isolated, as such it turned out that the mitigation plan itself had challenges.  

On coherence in Government communication, he said that Members should be assured that, since the July, a lot of application has been put to mind on what can be done better. As the President indicated, i the Department responded late n many areas. However, from a communication point of view, in the first meeting held the previous Sunday with the newly appointed Minister Gungubele, this issue was fortified. Daily talking points and messages were being sent from GCIS to all Cabinet Ministers. The Department encountered a few lags, and they are looking at how to strengthen that and ensure that Ministers are getting those. A set of key messages that are a little bit more elaborate than just daily talking points have also been introduced into the cycle at the request of the Minister. The Department can say with great honesty and sincerity to the Committee that one of the top 10 issues that Minister Gungubele was appraised on the previous Sunday by the DG, in their first meeting, was the issue of the MAC Charter and the getting the membership properly concluded. There was another meeting with Minister Gungubele held on the previous day, and he confirmed that, together with Deputy Minister Kekana, this is among the top order of business to be concluded. The Department hopes to give some better news the next time they appear before the Committee. The Committee should note that this was top of the order in the discussion, and the Minister agreed that it will get very intimate attention from himself and the DG.

On the Vuk’uzenzele, Mr Currin said that Deputy Minister Siweya really hit the nail on the head. As Ms Kubheka and Ms Faku mentioned, the Department has done a lot of work to ensure that it is online, translated, and accessible to those who, in the old language, would be called the “Upper LSM’s”, who have migrated to different forms of media pattern in their life journey, so that they can still get it and have a taste of what is happening at community level. The Department can say with great absolute guarantee that the distribution strategy is very focused on rural and peri-urban areas in institutions like youth centres, and ward committee structures around the country to those who do not have the privilege of access to other mediums of communication. Members can be assured that there is feedback that the Department gets from the GCIS district and provincial offices. Once the distribution truck stops in an area, the newspaper copies are gone within minutes. There is even some photographic evidence of incidents where the communities are really going for it. Obviously, with the COVID-19 era, the Department has had to make intermediary partnerships with agents, such as owners of community malls or shopping centres, who then receive and make sure that the copies are distributed. This is to prevent the mass-handout that was done pre-COVID-19. Members can be assured that this methodology counts in the constituencies. The historical trend is that people would go through every single article and tick off as they read. It is their source of information. The Department had built in things like competitions, phoning your number, letter to your editor, and call centres, which gives a taste of whether people are using it or not. Members can be assured that, by and large, that people do enter those things, which then gives a sense that the audiences are responding to the newspaper correctly. The Directorate of Distribution, which is a team of two people, is the contact point with District Offices, who would request extra supplies monthly, and this is done. The Department can confirm that the District Offices have remained. While there may not be that close contact that was there before COVID-19, District Offices do mapping; there are district-level activations, and mobile vehicles working with mobile clinics. These people take the Vuk’uzenzele with them when they go to the village level settings. It is not a one-way street; the Department modifies as per potential audiences and has a very strong focused on those South Africans who are called the “root”, whose access to information is not as great. The Department also has a built-in mechanism to do quality assurance to ensure that the Vuk’uzenzele is still stretching where the demand of the public is.

On the 30-day payment period, the Acting Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Coordination and Stakeholder Management had the privilege, at the request of the Acting Minister at a time, to be assigned to work with the Deputy President Mabuza on the Military Veterans Task Team that the President set up earlier this year, after the unhappiness of veterans at the end last year. The Department is very alive in the sector, by ensuring the instrument and budget is properly attuned to the priorities of developmental governments, since the Department does not do tasks like building houses. At a first meeting of that team, he asked other heads of communications from other departments how much they spend on companies that are owned by military veterans, women, or youth. He was very proud that, in a very short time, the Acting Deputy Director-General of Corporate Services, Ms Soci was able to show that there is good progress in supporting companies of military veterans. The principal is that there is active monitoring, and the Department is very alive to the Committee’s guidance that if payments are not done on time, it is livelihood for somebody who is trying to pick up from their feet. Ms Soci would respond further to give a sense of how the Department is working to ensure that this does not become an entrenched problem.

Ms Soci said the Department currently has a Business Continuity Plan where there is engagement with SITA to assist in to providing offsite offices, so that if a building is closed, the Department’s employees can go and process the payments there. The Department has also withdrawn remote working for the supply chain management officials, especially those dealing with the payments, tenders, and procurement. This has assisted the Department in ensuring that the 30-days payment targets are achieved. The Department is also working with IT to have an invoice-tracking system that will assist in ensuring that invoices are paid on time, because most of the time the problem is not within the Department’s Supply Chain, but rather with the clients, where invoices are not approved on time. As such, the invoice-tracking system currently being developed will assist in addressing those issues. Fourthly, the Department has rearranged the Supply Chain Management (SCM) officials to ensure that if a member of staff gets sick, there is a backup plan, so that targets are met.

MDDA Responses

Mr Mathebula, MDDA Board Chairperson, said that he wanted to clarify the two points made earlier regarding Board vacancies. He explained that the two vacancies in the broadcast and print sectors are in the Minister's office. He has been assured that the process is underway and it will be concluded very soon. The replacement of those two vacancies will hopefully be done by 16 September 2021. The other vacancies are the ones that the Committee is busy with. It is encouraging to note that the process is underway and will hopefully be concluded in time.

Overly, MDDA is encouraged with the Committee’s guidance, and receives the counsel on the various matters that Members raised. The Board and the Executive will confer and ensure that, in the next meeting with the Committee, improvements would have been made in the areas of concern, and even surprise the Committee by achieving some things quicker. The entity is appreciative of the cooperation from the various layers within the circle of its operations, which allows them to operate in the manner that they do.

Ms Potye, MDDA CEO, said that, whenever she comes to the Committee, she feels like a child that is willing to learn. The counsel from Members is not taken lightly, because that is how the MDDA improves. In fact, the Committee is more sympathetic to the entity than the late Minister was, because there would be so much lashing before coming to such meetings. In preparation, he would say, “Sis, do you think I can allow you to go to the Parliament without me knowing what you are going to present?” There would be no sleeping, as he would make the team re-do the presentations. The team enjoyed that, and that is what makes them grow in the positions – which brings about growth in the organisations that they lead.

On the question raised about the geographical spread and transformation, she said that the MDDA stands full in ensuring that there is plurality of voices, that people receive information in the indigenous languages that they speak and understand. The MDDA exists for that and will die for that. Section 14 of the MDDA Act says, “the Board must identify…”, it does not say the entity must not just wait, it says “the Board must identify these projects…” to ensure that it is not only the same people being supported. Therefore, as the Committee knows, the MDDA has a new way of making a call. Previously, the MDDA had a history of accepting applications 24/7, weekends, Saturdays, 365 days a week. This did not work because there would be a backlog of up to 850 million. Having spent about half a billion Rands in 15 years, the entity knew that it did not stand a chance to go through that. As such, this was eliminated, and a once-in-a-year call was introduced. Once the call is made, the MDDA gets to the Provinces to ensure that the beneficiaries are aware of the call for applications and the requirements. However, one of the painful things about this pandemic is that it constrains the entity’s work. Previously, the officials would split themselves into all provinces, get into the community radio stations through GCIS and make announcements. Sometimes, the CEO would speak to 95 community radio stations at once. After receiving the applications, then the real work begins. The team, led by Mr Mzuvukile Kashe, Executive Manager of Projects, then assists with ensuring that MDDA actually goes to the projects that really need the help. Projects are identified from those who meet the criteria in the application process. Unfortunately, as the Board Chairperson said, the Print agreement seems to have been a gentlemen's agreement, and therefore there is no money coming from commercial print. In fact, the regulation says that 25% of the MDDA budget is supposed to go to print. Currently, this sits at less than 10% or 5%. There is no money coming in for print, and yet it is so important for MDDA. When this rigorous process is done, there would be, for example, 81 applications that are compliant from broadcast, 161 for print, and the hearts of the officials bleed because support can only go to six of those from print, since there is only R3 million, and only 20 to 25 in broadcast – as there is some additional money that Multichoice gives on an annual basis. They would commit to giving R40 million, then eventually give R46 million, or they commit to giving R46 million and then give R52 million.

It is that money that MDDA uses. However, there are projects that are funded but cannot be rescued. When the first disbursement is done, they must comply with the report on how they have utilised the first tranche and then in the second tranche they failed. A recording is being introduced to trace those who are non-compliant, and for how long.  The aim is to disperse in the 12 months given in the contract. This has been done from year 2020, and the CEO is happy about that. The additional money is sometimes taken to signal distribution. Those that get approved in the normal tranche would naturally be given money to settle their current Sentech debts, or if they have their own must, they would then be assisted if it needs maintenance. This is because MDDA is not encouraging everyone to go to Sentech or getting everyone married to Sentech, because it is expensive. This is not to bankrupt Sentech, but it is to weigh the cheaper options through the sustainability model to have cost effective ways of ensuring that the stations can still transmit. That is why the entity has submitted an application to Media, Information and Communication Technology Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA) to train technicians in the communities, so that when those who self-transmit mushroom, those skills for which Sentech would previously be asked to assist are available.

That is the plan with signal distribution. Once approval is given and the debt is settled, a 12-month contribution to Sentech is given to the beneficiary. However, MDDA is aware that it has been biased to people that only transmitted through Sentech. Consideration is now being made for those who own transmitters and ask MDDA for assistance when the transmitter is down. They are now getting on board. For MDDA to save money, a contractor has been engaged over a 12-month contract, whose mandate is to go throughout the country – in the 288 stations in different locations – to check when they were first installed and their current condition with the studios. Pictures will be taken and included in a written report. This is to take stock of MDDA money and to professionalise the sector by having a maintenance plan. This contractor must then report to the Executive about infrastructure, to highlight what is broken down, and where maintenance and replacement of equipment like microphones and mixers are needed. This will ensure that there is foresight, and when a station applies for a studio, there is a report with details that it may in fact not need a full studio, but only replacement of few items. That way, the money can be used for something else.

Deputy Minister’s Remarks

The Deputy Minister said that, in the Department’s portfolio, they report to this Committee on Communication and the Portfolio Committee on Public Administration; this includes Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPMA) and Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). The Department appreciates that, since they started reporting to this Committee, Members have offered guidance. There is no day when the Deputy Minister wakes up and dreads the idea of appearing before the Committee to account along with the Department and its entities. The Department has been able to do everything that the Committee has recommended. The relationship has been good. There are improvements within MDDA and GCIS. The Department is truly happy.

Chairperson’s Closing Remarks

The Chairperson said this was the close of the session, but there would be communication to Members after the GCIS team, along with the Deputy Minister, are released from the meeting. The Committee highly appreciates the work done by the Department in ensuring that there is both delivery and accountability in the audit outcomes. The Committee appreciates assurance given that there would be improvement on areas that were currently not achieved. In some areas, it is just the issue of information presentation. This is because the Department may have over performed in one quarter, which then affected the next quarter, and it appears as though it is non-delivery, when in fact it had been done earlier than expected. Those things need to be corrected because they are important in the final document that gets to be seen publicly as correct information.

On the Boards, he said that it would be appreciated if the Executive fast-tracked the appointment process in the MDDA, since it would be shorter than the processes of Parliament. This is also a confirmation that, in the parliamentary process, the Deputy Minister already advertised. The committees have already set up to deal with that appointment process. Of course, some of the subcommittees have been affected by the passing on of Mr Mackenzie and the recess period. However, those are matters that are being attended to. There was already a scheduled meeting of the Subcommittee on the appointment of the MDDA Board on Friday, but that date is now affected by a programme of Parliament for both houses, looking at the Woman charter, as this is also a Woman's Month. This requires that all Portfolio Committee Members attend to that programme. As such, that meeting would be shifted to a Tuesday evening, to catch up with time lost in completing this process, as there are also other boards that report to the Committee that need similar attention. The Department can take this as the Committee being back on track. In that meeting, Members will be adopting the programme, and the new Member replacing Mr Mackenzie would also be afforded the opportunity to receive the documents in terms of applicants. This will help with preparation, so that the next meeting would look at shortlisting, with interviews following shortly. The Department can be guaranteed the Committee takes this work quite seriously.

As Ms Kubheka said that the Committee appreciates and prides in GCIS and MDDA because there are always improvements. While the Committee may appear to be coming hard on the Department in keeping with the standard, this is always done it in the best interest of the country, especially since the Department are the communicators of the country. This has been proven from the start of the pandemic, as the Department was able to coordinate the messaging in the country. Government had a single message to the people. This should be the expectation at all times. It is in that regard that the Committee gets to be stronger on those points. Members are happy that it is taken as constructive criticism to help the country move forward.

The Chairperson thanked the Deputy Minister and the team for attending the meeting, and released them so the Committee could deal with its announcements for five minutes before closing the meeting formally.  

As a matter for formality, the Committee accepted an apology from Mr L Molala (ANC), who could not attend the meeting due to ill-health. Members were reminded about the programme for women, which was raised earlier. Members would be expected to support that programme. The Administration would ensure that Members who had not received that letter, which was sent to the Chairperson, was shared to Members. As mentioned earlier in response to the Board appointment, the Friday that was spoken about on the previous day would then not be applicable, since that programme may be longer from 11 o'clock. There was also another letter that would circulate to Members. As Members are aware that from time to time the public raises matters with the Committee, there was one matter regarding a query on Telecom. It appears that there was no understanding that Telecom does not report directly to this Committee, as one of the entities of the Department. That matter would have been escalated sometime back with that then Acting DG Nkuna. There was a response to that, and action taken; it was also escalated to the Minister of the Portfolio, Ms Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who was aware of that. There was a response sent to the complainant, but the matter was now raised as a point for the Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC), which is the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA). These letters will be shared with Members.  

The Chairperson thanked Members for doing well on keeping time in the meeting, as it was scheduled to end at one o'clock. Members worked qualitatively because they were able to interrogate the reports, but still within time.

Ms Kubheka asked if this meant that the meeting was shifted to Tuesday, or Members would have to wait for a further invitation.

The Chairperson said that he was making the communication now, since it had been earlier announced for Friday. However, priority would need to be given to the changed Parliamentary programme. The meeting would now be set for Tuesday evening, and the support staff would write to Members. This meeting would also be to adopt the draft programme that would be circulated in that way.

The Chairperson thanked Members and the support staff.

Having no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.