Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee
Deputy Minister in The Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation
Honourable Members
Honoured guests
Friends and comrades
Members of GCIS management and staff present
Members of the media present
Ladies and gentlemen.
The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) mandate was, since its establishment, to serve as the central communications agency of a relatively new democratic government leading the reconstruction and development of post-apartheid South Africa.
A government communication system that mobilises the nation behind the National Development Plan, showcases progress and invites South Africans to work together to address challenges is critical to the achievement of Vision 2030.
This is an organisation responsible for informing all citizens of our country about what government is doing for them and how they can participate in the governance and consolidating our democracy.
The GCIS has a responsibility to act in the interest of all South Africans, without discrimination and communicate effectively in all official languages and reach all communities in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. In its 15 years of existence GCIS has managed to reach millions of South Africans through different platforms which include publications, news media, radio, television and Izimbizo.
We are presenting this budget vote on the eve of the celebration of our 20 years of freedom. In this regard, GCIS will mobilise society and the country at large towards taking stock and celebrating what we have achieved as a nation in this 20 years. Government will also recount what this democratic government has done and continues to do to improve the lives of all South Africans.
Through GCIS, the country should recount the gains it has made, as confirmed by the results of the Census 2011 and government own monitoring, that a lot has been done and life in our country is changing for the better. They need to know that life expectancy has improved to 60 years of age since 2009. The RDP housing programme has built over three million housing units since 1994.
The percentage of households with access to potable water infrastructure has increased from 60 per cent in 1994 to over 95% per cent. Access to electricity has increased from 50 per cent of households to approximately 85 per cent.
Our people must also know that the percentage of Grade one learners who attended formal Grade R increased from 80% in 2009 to over 90% in 2012. There was also improvement in Grade 3 literacy from 48% of learners operating at minimum literacy level in 2009 to 52% in 2012. The textbook distribution for 2013 school year with grades four to six, has achieved national average of 98.7%.
Also in the area of health, the TB cure rate has increased from 63.4% in 2009 to 73.5% in 2012. Patient satisfaction measured through the Stats SA General Household Survey has also improved from 54% in 2009 to 62% in 2012.
Honourable Members,
A functional GCIS fulfilling its mandate properly should also be able to inform our nation that while we are making good progress, there are still challenges. There are a number of South Africans still awaiting delivery which has not reached them yet. We believe that an informed nation will have a better appreciation of the challenges we have and the work this government is doing to improve their lives.
As the GCIS, we are the first to say that a lot of good communication has taken place in the past 15 years and acknowledge that we have not been able to reach every South African as we should. As we enter 20 Years of Freedom, we must be able to enhance our communication and ensure that we reach every community and household through different mediums available at our disposal.
GCIS continues to enhance existing communication platforms and products, and initiate new ones to ensure that targeted audiences and communities receive relevant information through a variety of means. GCIS is also establishing partnerships with strategic stakeholders within the three spheres of government, and within the broader society, because we recognise that it is only through working together that we can indeed do more.
Honourable Members,
In this financial year, we will begin with a campaign to mobilise society towards consolidating our democracy in the context of the 20 years of freedom. Government, led by the Presidency, is conducting a review of our achievements for the past 20 years. These will form the narrative that government will use to focus the nation's attention on our achievements and to motivate South Africans to work together to do more and ensure that every South African receives the services which are due to them.
As we champion the ethos of Working Together across all sectors of our society, informed by research, we know that people prefer face-to-face or unmediated communication by government especially, at the local level.
Through the izimbizo programme, we have had information seminars led by political leadership and activations in shopping malls, sport facilities and at taxi ranks. This also enabled physical distribution of information to citizens.
Using a variety of platforms, just over 3 000 communication projects were implemented in the most remote corners of our country, reaching more than 23 million people.
The Thusong Service Centre programme was established by government to serve as information centres for communities. They later evolved, realising the service delivery gap, to become service delivery points close to where people live. They are there to promote cost-effective, integrated, efficient and sustainable service provision to serve the needs of citizens better. This programme has brought hope and relieve to our people. Last year, we expanded access to information and services for citizens, including the use of integrated mobile units where key service departments sign up people for services and provide information. Our mothers and grandmothers in urban, peri-urban areas are now able to register for social grants, apply for IDs and certificates through Home Affairs within their localities.
However, we are aware of the challenges facing this programme and that not all of them are fully functional. We have undertaken a process of review so we can identify the gaps and ensure that this essential service to our people serves its purpose. Our partnership with the Phelophepa health train of Transnet alone visited 24 train stations in 4 provinces and serviced around 380 000 beneficiaries.
In 2012/13, GCIS provincial and district offices supported national days and significant campaigns with activities that included the rollout of President Jacob Zuma’s Siyahlola Monitoring Visits; Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe’s War on Poverty drives, and Public Participation Programmes of Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers in over 2000 events.
We place special emphasis on supporting municipalities in their communication, with preference given to municipalities who are part of Local Government Turnaround Strategy.
GCIS does so to close the gap between municipalities and communities, which sometimes contributes to the factors behind unlawful protest in some communities. Honourable Members, we also have a mandate to ensure that government’s vision and policies are clearly understood in the public service. We coordinate an Internal Communicators’ Forum, to ensure coherence of messages across the various channels and outlets departments manage.
While we work closely and consistently with public media to disseminate information to as many South Africans as possible, we also recognise that the dissemination of government information is not the primary business of public media. Against this background, we are pleased that Vuk’uzenzele, a free national government newspaper, continues to gain traction among its target audience with a monthly circulation of 1,7 million.
Last financial year, we have also distributed 20, 4 million copies of the Vuk’uzenzele in deep rural, rural and peri-urban areas. Through effective distribution management practices, a performance metric of 99.6% has been sustained against an industry average of 98% Vuk'uzenzele is the only newspaper in the country available in Braille and all official languages. Citizens with access to internet access the newspaper through an online version, which is due for further enhancement and improved usability. The online edition attracted a remarkable
483 533 hits since April last year.
Honourable Members,
One of our flagships, the Government news agency formerly known as BuaNews, repositioned itself as SANews in the past year, to enhance branding of the agency’s identity and online searches. From one of the smallest newsrooms in the country, SAnews.gov.za produces hard news and human-interest features, carries loads of exciting pictures, video content on YouTube, and is also available on Facebook and Twitter.
The government news agency has become more popular with the public as opposed to the media and it will continue to be marketed to the broader public as a complement to South Africa’s rapidly diversifying news and information mix. Today the agency receives more than half a million hits per month from users domestically and internationally.
In securing a wider reach across the South African population we recently piloted a project to feed radio news bulletins live to community radio stations across the country.
To cater for the communication and information needs of the leadership corps in the Public Sector, we continue to publish its monthly Public Sector Manager (PSM) magazine, with 170 000 copies produced in 2012/13.
The magazine gave birth to a quarterly supplement, GovComms, which analyses communication trends in the public and private sectors for government communicators. 45 000 copies of this newsletter are produced each quarter. In the current financial year, number of magazines will be reduced to 144 000 copies with GovComms increased to 48 000 per annum.
Also in the past financial year, GCIS launched My District Today, a weekly electronic newsletter capturing progress at the coalface of service delivery in the five priority programme areas of government. Currently over 500 key stakeholders from within and outside government, including members of this house, receive this product.
Honourable Members,
In the online environment, GCIS also informs citizens, stakeholders and other interest groups through the SA Government Online and GCIS websites. The SA Government Online website serves as the official entry point to online government information. During 2012/13, the page views for the website increased by approximately 4,8 million, compared to 2011/12.
Social Media have evaporated the geographical boundaries within which society previously conducted itself. It has defined and broadened the scope of possibilities with regards to worldwide government communication. GCIS will continue to put government information in this space.
Honourable Members,
GCIS will in this financial year produce 45 000 copies of the South Africa Yearbook and 20 000 copies of the Pocket Guide to South Africa which is extensively used to market the country as a tourist destination. GCIS has continued to support the President’s State of the Nation Address campaign annually, and to support the National Orders.
The post-SoNA Ministerial media briefings, implemented by GCIS assisted in unpacking implementation of governments’ Programme of Action for 2013/14 and beyond. GCIS plans to implement Ministerial Cluster media briefings on a more regular basis throughout the year in providing up to date information to citizens through media.
GCIS continues to support the National Orders as they are integral to celebrating our heritage, fostering the acknowledgement of our country’s heroes and heroines and building our nation’s social identity, which is a key enabler in the National Development Plan.
Honourable Members,
GCIS has began to lead and drive communication between Government and the media led by the Cabinet Spokesperson and GCIS CEO to impact on the media and communication agenda. Through our Rapid Response system, government is working to set the media agenda, respond to issues in the communication environment and set the communication agenda in the interest of the public.
This is to ensure that Government asserts its voice and achievements in the battle of ideas in the media. It is also to ensure that it is proactive in communicating policies and programmes to diverse communities, using in particular, the SABC African Language Radio Stations (ALS) and community media.
The GCIS has also begun to ensure a steady and more frequent stream of government’s voice in mainstream media through weekly opinion pieces by the CEO of GCIS on current issues. In enhancing the effectiveness of the government-wide communication system, GCIS continues to assist departments to formulate and implement communication strategies and plans on major campaigns.
These campaigns include the London 2012 Olympics, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Conference, Census 2011, National Population Register, Worlds Aids Day, Remission of Sentence and World Economic Forum.
GCIS also provided communication support and contributed to the communication success of South Africa’s hosting of mega events such as the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Summit and the Orange Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Honourable Members,
GCIS is tasked with communicating the work of government through implementing cost-effective media bulk buying in newspapers, radio, television, outdoor and digital media, through relevant advertising messaging.
Equally importantly, GCIS works to capture dynamic archives of South Africa’s history. A culture of strategic media bulk buying is gaining momentum, and progress is being made on delivering cost saving to the fiscus.
In the previous financial year, GCIS bought media for 41 clients; this included national departments, provinces, and entities. I am pleased to announced that this advertising expenditure was valued over R250 million, for which GCIS paid about R220 million.
The amount saved through bulk buying was over R30 million. GCIS through its media buying operation, continues to support the financial viability of a diverse community media sector, by placing over R37 million in advertising in community press, radio and television.
Honourable Members,
I am pleased to announce that GCIS has yet again received an unqualified audit on both financial statements and performance information. The organisation continues to work smarter and displays sound financial management of public funds.
The vacancy rate has been kept consistently at 5% throughout the year. The Employment Equity Plan has been implemented and the following achievements were maintained with 53% of females at senior management level and 2.3% employees with disabilities.
This month GCIS will be relocating premises, Tshedimosetso House, in Hatfield. These premises will be equipped with state of the art technology that will enable GCIS to become more impactful in executing its mandate.
Over the medium term, expenditure is expected to increase from R396.7 million in 2013/14 to R430.8 million in 2015/16. The increased spending will mainly be in the Administration Programme and will be used for costs of IT and office accommodation.
GCIS was allocated additional funding of R19.1 million over the medium term.
As an additional savings measure approved by Cabinet, GCIS budget was reduced by R3.9 million in 2013/14, and R8.3 million in 2014/15 and R13.1 million in 2015/16.
These reductions, have delayed some of the planned expansions of communication services. However, the department has implemented measures, to mitigate any potential adverse effect on the achievement of outputs.
In conclusion, Chairperson, I would like to thank the Deputy Minister, Obed Bapela, for his leadership and strategic guidance to GCIS. I would also like to thank the Portfolio Committee for its vigilance and its support for the work of this important institution of government.
I thank the Acting CEO, Phumla Williams, and the management and staff of GCIS for the outstanding work performed in a very dynamic, challenging and at times, under-resourced, environment.
