H Yawa: Local Government Communicators workshop opening

30 November 2007

Executive Mayors and Mayors
Representatives from the Office of the Premier, Government Communications
Information System (GCIS), Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG)
and South African Local Government Association (Salga)
Local Government Communicators
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It's more than just protocol when one says that it is an honour to take part
in a workshop of this nature, even if it's only at an opening session. It is
not often that political principals, such as myself, have an opportunity to rub
shoulders and interact with such a distinguished core group of local,
provincial as well as national government communicators. And I should say that
it didn't take much persuading and convincing for me to attend this event.

South Africa comes from a past that lacked respect for people's freedom,
inequality and trampled on people's rights, cognisant of this legacy the
democratic state when it came into being after the 1994 democratic
dispensation, adopted a progressive constitution in 1996, which seeks to
eradicate this past, by ensuring that the people enjoy their long fought
freedom and rights.

Minister in The Presidency, responsible for government communication, during
the GCIS Budget Vote, Dr Essop Pahad alludes to this past when he says:

"In the past 13 years we have moved from a highly closed and structured
communication system where information was constructed and filtered and used to
negate and stymie democracy. Under apartheid the right to know was for all
intents and purposes non-existent. Information was disinformation, designed to
maintain repression and reproduce racism as an ideology and racial
discrimination as a system. Today we celebrate an open communication
system"

Hence, today, our country places a particular emphasis on constitutional
rights of its citizenry. Among some of the most progressive laws that have been
developed was the inclusion of press freedom in the constitution. South Africa
as a country respects and guarantees freedom of the press. Rights of the media
are constitutionally entrenched. South Africa as a developmental state ensures
that civil and political rights are also constitutionally guaranteed and are
progressively made a reality.

Freedom of expression, association and assembly exists and are enjoyed by
all regardless of their race, gender, or beliefs. People of South Africa enjoy
political freedoms in a sense that regular elections are held and people get to
choose their political leaders through political parties of their choice.

Communications therefore plays a critical role in informing the public about
these rights, and ensuring that where they are violated such actions are
challenged. But the role of communication is broader than this, it is not only
about telling the people what services are available to them, it is not about
volumes of information flow that we disseminate; but it is or should be
fundamentally about ensuring that the voiceless, the poor, the rural people,
the marginalised, women, children and people with disabilities are given a
voice. We must give voice to the powerless, providing the poor with the means
to participate in democracy in many practical ways.

Communication is therefore an empowerment tool, it must be used in an
empowering and liberating manner. It should be for the achievement of the
developmental goals of the state. Media as an operator within a communication
environment has a role of disseminating information and has given itself a role
of being a watchdog of the people when it comes to their constitutionally
guaranteed rights and freedoms. But the role of the media goes beyond this (or
it should). The most important section of the constitution as it relates to
communication is in Section 16 of the Bill of Rights which stipulates that:

"Everyone has a right to freedom of expression, which includes (a) freedom
of the press and other media; (b) freedom to receive and impart information or
ideas". The Bill of Rights guarantees the rights the media enjoys and ensures
that they are protected, as long as those rights do not promote propaganda for
war, incitement of violence or advocates hatred based on gender, race,
ethnicity and religion. I believe this strong protection of media freedom is
one of the hallmarks of our constitution that makes South Africa to be regarded
as a country that has one of the best constitutions in the world.

Section 32 of the Constitution further stresses the importance of people's
rights with regards to access to information, when it says:

"Everyone has the right of access to (a) any information held by the state
and (b) any information that is held by another person and that is required for
the exercise or protection of any rights."

This is an important framework that our country's communication systems
exist under, and that should be respected. I am raising these matters because,
as government at whatever level, when we are in conflict with the media, we
often forget about this framework and act as if we exist in a South Africa that
is dictatorial and has no respect for these rights as articulated in our
constitution the cornerstone of our society.

Media must also play a role in teaching people that rights go hand in hand
with responsibilities. But more than this South Africa as a developmental state
enjoys developmental rights as well, in a sense that social, economic and
cultural rights are guaranteed by the constitution. The media and government
communicators are therefore partners in the dissemination of information and
should behave as partners in the project to empower the people. The
relationship should not always be antagonistic, and we should not find
ourselves at loggerheads at all times.

Our government also places the issue of access to information as one of its
key strategic issues; it is for this reason that as part of its governance, it
puts the issue of communication at the heart of government, hence the
establishment of the GCIS. GCIS plays a critical role in communicating
government policies and opportunities to the general population.

The central mandate of Government Communications is to meet the
communication and information needs of government and the people, in such a way
that communication opens up access to information and opportunities to enable
the people of South Africa to become active agents that will inform policy and
decision making.

Communication should encourage an active and engaged citizenry, one that is
well informed, knowledgeable, politically literate and confident of asserting
its right to equitable service delivery. Among some of the things that this
workshop should address is this very same matter, we must understand what our
role is as government communicators with regards to empowering our citizenry
with information that will help them to develop and become agents of
change.

I understand that your workshop will also deal with the crucial matter of
handling communication crisis and crisis management. My advice on how to manage
a crisis is do not be caught in a scandal, you must always avoid a crisis by
not creating one for yourself. The best remedy therefore for us as elected
representatives in our daily work or contact with the media, is that we should
not do the things that will make us to be in conflict with the media.

We should at all times avoid doing things that we will not want to come
under the public spotlight, and they will put us in a situation where we must
run away from the media. I know most of you will be concerned about what is the
best way of handling a crisis. My advice is do not be caught with your pants
down. However, during the times of crisis we need to be as honest as possible
with the communicators that work in our municipalities, we need to be upfront
and factual, and ask for the best advice about how the situation can be
handled. This needs a level of trust between the communicator and the principal
he/she is serving.

If given an advice by your communicators you must trust them, the best
policy is always to be open and deal with the matters at hand in a pro-active
and frank manner so that the room for speculations and long drawn processes of
enquiry are eliminated. This reminds me of what one media specialist once said:
"You must feed the beast, and feed it consistently, because if you do not, it
will forage on its own". That is how the media operates, in the absence of
communication from your municipality, the media like a beast will forage on its
own. The point is always be pro-active in your communication.

In municipalities, there is a need for a common and shared understanding
that communicators are there to support the municipalities they serve - from
mayors, municipal managers, speakers and so on. Their role is to project a good
image of the municipality. This is a crucial responsibility and requires a high
level of trust. For communicators to be effective in their daily work of
projecting this good image, they need access to public representatives.

No communicator can ever be effective without having direct access to his or
her principal. So I appeal today to all our mayors who are here today, to
ensure that this happens, because we need communicators who have unlimited
access to principals as well as to council discussions and decisions. As mayors
we must trust our communicators enough to allow them to seat at council
meetings, so that what they communicate to the public and the media will be
well informed and carry insight of the thinking of a municipality on crucial
matters. I am glad that this issue will also be handled when you deal with the
memorandum/declaration of understanding that you will be signing tomorrow.

When we come out of this workshop we must also be clear about how best can
we serve communities, how to utilise the Imbizo as a means of direct
communication with our people, how we can also use other means of developmental
communication in service to our people. As we are in the 21st century we must
also move ahead and lead in the new multi-media methods that we employ in our
communication with our people.

The Imbizo is no longer just a way of directly communicating with the
people, it has become institutionalised as a way of governing. It remains an
expression of true participatory democracy; it has strengthened the partnership
between government and the people. We have gained invaluable advice on how best
to address some of the challenges and blockages impeding service delivery. We
must be creative in our use of information and communication technologies;
using multiple, varied and diverse mediums of communication to reach our people
and in particular the marginalised and the poor. We are a developmental state,
and we cannot honestly rely only on the private media to convey our
messages.

We need to emphasise the need of alternative media and for us at a local
level we need also to strengthen our ties with community radio stations,
community newspapers, the use of theatre and culture can also be a very
effective means of communication for information and to communicate directly
with the people.
The government has the obligation to inform the people about what is happening
and the progress that is being made at all levels and the role of communication
is at the centre of that.

Delegates, you will not have done justice to the importance of this workshop
if you do not deal decisively with the challenges that face government
communicators in general and local government communicators in particular.
Therefore there is a need for this workshop to deliberate around the
communication challenges.

Among these are the challenges of:

* internal communication
* lack of understanding
* lack of co-ordination and integration
* multi-lingualism
* lack of access to political principals.

If you can deal with these challenges then we will be on a path of better
communication.

I wish you well as you start the proceedings of this workshop and hope that
whatever you learn will help in making sure that our municipalities are viewed
in a better way by our people, and will also help you in improving the
government's relations with the media, which should be strengthened and taken
to the higher level.

I thank you.

Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 387 3814
Fax: 018 384 5426
Cell: 083 629 1987
E-mail:LKgwele@nwpg.gov.za

Issued by: Department of Developmental Local Government and Housing, North
West Provincial Government
30 November 2007