Department of Communications & GCIS on their Quarter 3 performance; Committee Report on SABC Interim Board

Meeting report

Ms N Tolashe (ANC) and Ms P Van Damme (DA) expressed their displeasure with the continued absence of the Minister of Communications during Committee proceedings. It was important for the Minister to prioritise the Committee so as to engage with Members on what was happening in the Department and its entities.

Mr M Gungubele (ANC) agreed and suggested that a letter be written to the Minister noting her absence and to schedule an urgent meeting with her, and the South African Broadcasting Authority (SABC) interim board in particular, to ensure that recommendations arising from the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the SABC Board Inquiry were implemented.

Presentation on the 3rd Quarter Performance of the Department of Communications (DoC) and Government Communication and Information System

Mr Lethabo Dibetso, Committee Researcher, took the Committee through the presentation and began by identifying the Department’s four strategic programmes over the five-year period as per its 2015/16 - 2019/20 strategic plan. These programmes were administration, communications policy, research and development, industry and capacity development and entity oversight.

He then outlined the third quarter financial performance of the Department - on administration, the Department spent R43.6 million (76.3%) against the available budget of R57.1 million. In relation to the benchmark expenditure drawing target of R33.6 million, the administration branch spent 129.5% against the approved drawings.

The Communications Policy, Research and Development programme spent R4.7 million (60.2%) of the available budget of R7.7 million. On Industry and Capacity Building programme, the Department spent R18.7 million (39.2%) against the available budget of R47.7 million. Expenditure for the Entity Oversight programme was R921.9 million (74.5%) against the available budget of R1.2 billion.

Mr Dibetso noted issues for the Committee to consider in relation to the Department – in terms of virements R57.8 million was moved within the Department to cover the digital terrestrial television (DTT) project as well as other operational costs. Additionally, the Department continued to share office space and infrastructure with the GCIS which posed a security risk in the sense that officials from both Departments were sharing the same offices while DoC had limited storage space to safeguard documents.  The Department also remained highly underfunded and one accountability instrument for 2016/17 for the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) was not signed.

The presentation then looked at the financial performance of the GCIS - the main appropriation for the financial year was R382.2 million while actual expenditure was R278.5 million. Expenditure as percentage of available budget was 73%.

Expenditure on administration was R107, 8 million (72%) of the available budget of the programme. There was a projected deficit of R2, 481 million for the programme which was as a result of facilities management and office accommodation. On content processing and dissemination, GCIS spent 75% of its available budget. Total expenditure was R98 million and the main appropriation was R130, 450 million. There was projected under spending of R761 000. In terms of intergovernmental coordination and stakeholder management, expenditure was 71% against the available budget.

Mr Dibetso then noted issues for the Committee to consider in relation to the GCIS, namely, vacancies yet to be filled and underfunding of the GCIS impacting on the filling of vacancies, particularly in key strategic positions. The Committee may also consider looking into how many users the GovChat platform currently had and whether sharing space with the Department affected or impacted the operations of the GCIS.

Discussion

The Chairperson expressed concern with the lack of permanent personnel within the Department and its entities – many personnel seemed to be in acting positions. The Committee had to prioritise the issue to ensure the Department and its entities were operating effectively.

Ms Tolashe agreed that the issue of vacant positions had to be raised again during a meeting between the Committee and the Minister. She commented that the Department was not properly budgeted for. She suggested a meeting with the Treasury to reach conclusions on budgetary issues.

GCIS: Third Quarter Preliminary Performance Report

Mr Zweli Momeka, Chief Financial Officer, GCIS, took the Committee through the presentation and noted that GCIS had set 41 targets for the third quarter of which 39 were achieved and 15 were overachieved. GCIS had maintained the vacancy rate at 9.27% i.e. below the 10% requirement of the Department of Public Service and Administration.

Mr Curan Currin, Acting Deputy DG, GCIS, said the provision and dissemination of information and spearheading of awareness campaigns on government programmes was a crucial component of GCIS’s mandate. GCIS had done well in this regard owing to effective collaboration with other spheres of government. Partnerships with other departments in the economic cluster towards job creation and economic development were a notable focus of GCIS in the third quarter. One area that was regrettably underachieved was the dissemination of information around the Thusong program and centres - GCIS was working on measures to address underperformance in this regard.

Ms Tasneem Carrim, Acting Deputy DG: Content Processing and Dissemination, GCIS, commenting on GCIS’ consolidated financial report, said that it was working under conditions of strict budgetary constraints. It was thus prompted to cut back on a number of areas of expenditures such as newspaper and magazine publishing and distribution.

Discussions

Mr M Kalako (ANC) commended the Department and GCIS for the good work as presented before the Committee. He asked however if the acting personnel at managerial level had appointing authority to fill junior posts. He then asked if GCIS was involved in the communications of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) issue, noting the different messages that were coming from various sources over the grants debacle. Had GCIS been able to persuade government departments to advertise on local radio stations and community papers?

Mr R Tseli (ANC) commented on issues raised in a previous Committee engagement with the Department. He advised the Department to present slides that spoke to issues raised in previous meetings so as to keep track of progress to ensure things were done. He asked about the possibility of translating the GCIS magazine and Vuk’uzenzele newspaper into other local languages for the benefit of every citizen.

Ms Tolashe noted the Department’s social media strategy and asked how it cascaded down to everyone in communities and how other stakeholders were to be roped in. She further asked how coordination between GCIS and other government departments can be cemented - this could do away with individual Cabinet Ministers’ spokespersons thereby cutting costs. She also asked why the ICASA accountability instrument of 2016 was not eyt signed.

Ms M Matshoba (ANC) asked if there was any short-term solution on the concerns of GCIS sharing offices with the Department.

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) asked what electronic content GCIS wanted to develop given that the presentation said it met that particular target. She asked how successful GCIS’s information dissemination strategy in the rural areas was.

Ms Van Damme commented on the relationship between GCIS and government spokespeople and if the relationship was defined in the employment contracts of the spokespeople. She also asked about measures in place to discipline spokespeople who were in the habit of embarrassing government.

On GCIS publications, she asked how many publications were being distributed, if GCIS measured community readership of these publications and if there was any profit from selling the publications. She remarked that GCIS recently commented on the goings-on in the Office of the Public Protector, an independent Chapter Nine institution – she found this unconstitutional and asked for a comment thereon.  

Mr Gungubele commented that the GCIS policy framework ought to improve. He identified various aspects of the targets and objectives presented that were ambiguous and not concise. He said that GCIS should articulate its policy frameworks clearly.

The Chairperson asked about GCIS’ strategy to ensure that people living with disabilities were catered for.

Mr Norman Munzhelele, Acting Director-General, DoC, responded to Mr Gungubele’s concerns on how the Department articulated targets and objectives in its presentations. He assured the Committee that the Department will improve on that.

On communications around the SASSA debacle, he replied that GCIS should be the focal point for all government communications. GCIS should ensure that there was no discordance in the messages conveyed to the public by various government departments.

Ms Carrim added that concerns of poor coordination of government communication were not new. She emphasised that capacity of government communication had to improve because currently, norms and standards of government communications were not consistent. There was a need to streamline the standards and quality of government communication personnel.

On language diversity in GCIS publications, Ms Carrim emphasised its importance, and particularly, the sensitivity around the need for people living with disabilities to be able to access government material. GCIS worked with the National Society for the Blind such that 600 copies of Vuk’uzenzele were published in Braille.

She replied to Ms Van Damme’s questions by stating that GCIS’s research concluded that the Vuk’uzenzele newspaper was very much appreciated by the public. However, on the magazine, whose target market was managerial personnel, no profit was being turned and therefore GCIS was moving towards soft rather than hard copy distribution of the magazine.

Mr Currin remarked that communications around SASSA were not how it should have been done. GCIS was working on a rapid response media analysis framework to ensure that communication and information dissemination was organised.

Department of Communications: 2016/17 Third Quarter Performance Report

Mr Munzhelele presented the Department of Communications’ performance report as at 30 December 2016 to the Committee. It was noted that the Department had achieved 79% of its set objectives - programmes on industry and capacity development as well as entity oversight were highly achieved.

The Department was carrying out digital broadcasting awareness campaigns in line with Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) rollout and, as per the 2016/17 target, six had been carried out in five provinces. A number of communities requested focused consumer awareness campaigns on digital broadcasting and the Department was committed to the drive.

On financials and budget allocation, it was emphasised that the Department remained underfunded. Without intervention from Treasury, many targets requiring funding were not going to be achieved.

In terms of the issue of GCIS sharing office space with the Department, Mr Munzhelele said that in the absence of additional funding, the two were stuck with the current arrangement.   

Discussion

Mr Gungubele remarked that the Department’s presentation was confusing. He said issues reported on were “pedestrian” while the real issues were not being tackled.

Ms Van Damme noted that the Department’s spending was well on course. However, she expressed concern that there was little dedication by the Department in carrying out its oversight mandate on State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). This was evident from the under spending on the entities oversight programme. The Department was not spending money allocated for the oversight on SOEs when there were serious problems that needed to be addressed.

Ms Van Dyk expressed concern over the Department’s vacancy rate and asked about its impact on productivity.

Mr Tseli asked if the Department and GCIS had enough capacity to deal with non-compliance by entities, specifically if it had “teeth to bite”.

Ms Tolashe said she was impressed that digital rollout awareness was extensive - almost five provinces had been covered to date. However, she asked how the Department prioritised provinces to make sure that there was no favouritism.

Mr Munzhelele said when DTT was handed over to the Department on the 30 January 2015, there was no funding for the project. From the little money the Department had, it tried to keep the project in motion. The program however remained underfunded.

On which provinces were being prioritised by DTT awareness programmes, the Department adopted a phased approach to ensure that all provinces were catered for - the Department was hopeful that the 2018 deadline will be met.

Ms Malehu Thindisa, Chief Financial Officer, Department of Communications, said that a report was going to be tabled to clarify issues raised by the Committee especially with regards to funds needed for operations.

Ms Mathope Thusi, Chief Director: Corporate Services, Department of Communications, responded to concerns on the Department’s vacancy rate noting that most of the posts had been vacant since the establishment of the Department. The Department had started filling up the posts but financial constraints, due to the appointment of contract personnel within the DTT space, had stalled the process. 

On whether the Department and GCIS had “teeth to bite”, Mr Munzhelele said it had none. The Department was working on a policy framework to be tabled before Cabinet that was going to give the Department powers to intervene in the event of non-compliance by municipalities and entities within its ambit.

Adoption of Committee Report Recommending Candidates for the Interim SABC Board

The Chairperson said that the Committee had finalised the names of five people that will be recommended to the National Assembly to constitute the interim SABC board. The five names were: Khanyisile Kweyama, Mathatha Tsedu, John Matisonn, Febe Potgieter-Gqubule and Krish Naidoo.

Mr Kalako said that the Committee recommended Khanyisile Kweyama and Mathatha Tsedu as interim board chairperson and deputy chairperson respectively.

Ms Tolashe commented that there was need for urgent interaction between the Committee and the Minister of Communications on the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the SABC Board Inquiry to ensure that the SABC ills were corrected within the six month life of the interim board.  

The Chairperson read through the report recommending candidates for the SABC interim board. The report was then adopted by the Committee for consideration by the National Assembly.

The meeting was adjourned.