Closing remarks of the Deputy Minister in The Presidency– Kenny Morolong (MP) delivered at the GCIS Strategic Session, 09 October 2026
Colleagues,
Let me take this opportunity to formally welcome the Director-General to our midst. Director-General, we are honoured to have you join us at this important Strategic Planning Session, and we look forward to your leadership, guidance and contribution as we reflect on the future direction of GCIS and the broader government communication system.
I would also like to warmly greet all of you colleagues, senior managers, heads of entities and partners who have participated in today's discussions. Your contributions have enriched the conversation and demonstrated the collective commitment we have to strengthening government communication and ensuring that we remain responsive to the needs of our citizens.
As we bring this Strategic Planning Session to a close, I would like to reflect on some of the questions that have emerged from our discussions during the Strat-session.
These are not necessarily new questions for GCIS. In fact, they are questions that sit at the heart of the work we have been doing and speaking about for some time.
But a Strategic Planning Session gives us an important opportunity to pause, reflect and ask ourselves whether the way we are responding to these enduring questions remains fit for the environment in which we now operate.
One of those questions is the question of an informed citizenry.
We have consistently spoken about the importance of ensuring that citizens have access to credible, timely, relevant and accessible government information. We have spoken about an informed citizenry as an empowered citizenry because citizens can only meaningfully participate in our democracy, access services and make informed decisions when they have the information they need. So, the question for us coming out of this Strategic Session is not whether an informed citizenry matters. We know that it does.
The question is:
How do we, as GCIS and as the government communication system, ensure that we are continuing to meet this responsibility in an environment where the way citizens access, consume and share information has changed so fundamentally?
And that leads us to a second, equally important question:
How do we respond to the challenge of trust from our citizens?
We can communicate more information, more quickly and across more platforms, but information alone does not necessarily translate into trust. Citizens must be able to trust the information they receive from government. They must have confidence that government is listening, that it understands their concerns and that the information we provide is credible, accurate and relevant to their lived experiences.
This means that our communication cannot simply be about telling citizens what government is doing.
It must also be about listening to citizens, understanding the questions they are asking and responding to the issues that matter to them.
Trust is built through consistency.
It is built when government says what it means and does what it says. It is built when information reaches citizens in time. And it is built when citizens experience government communication as honest, accessible and responsive.
So, as we reflect on the future of GCIS, we must ask ourselves:
Are we communicating in a way that strengthens trust between citizens and government, or are there gaps in our communication system that we still need to address?
Then there is perhaps the most immediate challenge confronting us - the massive digitisation of the communication environment.
The environment has changed dramatically. The speed at which information is produced, distributed and consumed has fundamentally altered the expectations of citizens, the media and government itself. We are now operating in an environment of social media, citizen journalism, artificial intelligence, real-time information and rapidly changing digital platforms as the Minister alluded in yesterday engagement. Information can move from one individual to millions of people within minutes. A narrative can develop before government has had an opportunity to respond. And misinformation and disinformation can spread at a speed that traditional communication processes were never designed to match.
This brings us to another question:
How quickly are we adapting?
Are our systems, processes, skills and capabilities keeping pace with the communication environment in which we now operate?
I believe this is one of the most important reflections that must come out of this Strategic Session. The answer cannot simply be to say that we are moving towards Digital First.
We must ask what Digital First actually means for the way GCIS operates every day.
Does it mean that we can respond to emerging issues quickly? Can we get accurate government information into the public domain before misinformation fills the vacuum?
Can we produce content at the speed and scale required by today's environment? Can we communicate in formats that citizens actually consume? Can we use data and insights to understand what citizens are concerned about? And can the different parts of government communicate as one system when the circumstances demand it?
The Digital First is therefore not about replacing traditional communication. It is about ensuring that government is present where citizens are, when they need information, while continuing to use other platforms to provide depth, context and sustained engagement.
The environment has changed. The question is whether our operating model has changed quickly enough with it.
That is the challenge before us.
SETTING THE AGENDA, NOT JUST RESPONDING TO IT
This brings me to what I believe is one of the most important questions about the future role of GCIS: Are we simply responding to the agenda being set by others, or are we helping government set the agenda? The discussions around the Editorial Content Hub are important in this regard.
The Content Hub must continue to evolve as a mechanism through which government is able to identify the issues that matter, develop authoritative content and ensure that government messages reach citizens.
It must help us move from a reactive communication model to one that is more anticipatory, coordinated and strategic. We should know what issues are emerging. We should understand what citizens are talking about. We should identify information gaps. And we should ensure that government has the right content, in the right format, on the right platform and at the right time.
RESPONDING WITH SPEED AND RESPONSIBILITY
The age of citizen journalism has changed the rules of engagement. Government no longer has the luxury of waiting until every element of a formal communication product has been finalised before entering a conversation. Sometimes the first response must be digital, it must be immediate and sometimes it must simply establish the facts and indicate that more information will follow. The principle we discussed today of a timeous and scalable response is therefore important.
This requires us to rethink some of our internal processes. We must ask whether our systems allow us to respond at the speed required by the environment. And where they do not, we must improve them. Because in today's environment, the absence of credible information creates space for someone else to fill the vacuum.
COUNTERING MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION
This brings us directly to misinformation and disinformation. The challenge is no longer simply that false information exists. The challenge is the speed, scale and reach with which information can now be produced and distributed. Artificial intelligence has added another dimension to this challenge. We therefore need a more coordinated approach across government and the broader communication environment.
The discussions in the sessions highlighted the need for government and media stakeholders to engage on protocols around misinformation, disinformation and the responsible use of AI, but I must mention colleagues that we are on the right track with the mis and disinformation campaign. The credibility of government communication is one of our most important assets. We must protect it.
ONE GOVERNMENT, ONE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
Another clear message from the session’s discussions is that we cannot achieve this if we continue to work in silos. A whole-of-government approach cannot simply be a phrase in a strategy document. It must be reflected in how government plans, coordinates and communicates. GCIS has a central role in enabling this. Departments and entities have different mandates, but they operate within one government.
The clusters have a particularly important role in this regard. They are not only platforms for policy coordination. They should continue to help ensure that communication around government's priorities is coherent and mutually reinforcing. Our goal should be one government communication system that allows different parts of government to speak from a common strategic understanding while retaining the ability to communicate according to their specific mandates.
BRINGING GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION TO THE GROUND
But coordination at the national level is not enough. Government communication must reach people where they live. This is why the role of the MDDA and community media is so important. An informed citizenry cannot be built only through national media, government websites or social media platforms. Community media has a unique role in reaching communities in their own languages and in the context of issues that directly affect them.
The discussions with the MDDA highlighted opportunities to strengthen community media's capacity, including digital capability, indigenous-language content, verification, editorial quality and audience reach.
A MORE RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
Colleagues, this is also where the discussion about GCIS's evolving role as a government newswire service becomes significant. We must recognise that the communication environment has changed. Government needs the capacity to provide credible, authoritative and timely information directly into the information ecosystem.
The opportunity is not simply to produce more content. It is to build the capability to become a trusted and reliable source of government information for citizens, the media and other stakeholders. Our existing journalistic and editorial capabilities provide an important foundation. The question is how we integrate and strengthen these capabilities so that information can move through the system more quickly and effectively.
THE WORK OF BUILDING SOUTH AFRICA’S BRAND CONTINUES
The presentation by Brand South Africa highlighted the work to strengthen South Africa’s brand and reputation internationally. This is not simply about promoting the country, but about ensuring that the South African story is strategically positioned, understood and amplified in an increasingly complex international environment, where competing narratives can quickly influence perceptions of our country.
This requires a coordinated whole-of-government approach, bringing together GCIS, Brand South Africa, DIRCO and other relevant stakeholders. The proposed Situation Room approach is important in this regard, particularly when issues arise that have implications for South Africa’s international reputation.
We must therefore move beyond simply reacting when South Africa’s reputation is challenged, towards proactively strengthening our international positioning and influence. This requires coordinated messaging, strategic partnerships, stronger digital engagement and a sustained effort to ensure that the story we tell about South Africa at home and the story we communicate internationally reinforce one another.
BEYOND THE LOGO: WHAT DOES GCIS STAND FOR?
The CSIR presentation perhaps gave us one of the most fundamental questions of the day:
What is the purpose of GCIS in the current communication environment, and what role should GCIS occupy in the minds of citizens, communicators, departments and the media?
That question should stay with us. Because an organisational brand is not simply what we put on a document or a presentation. A brand is the experience people have of an organisation. If we say that GCIS is the strategic communication agency of government, then that must be reflected in the experience of departments, entities, media and citizens.
Our brand must stand for trust, credibility, responsiveness, professionalism, coordination and strategic leadership. We must therefore move beyond the logo. We must ask what GCIS means. What does it deliver? What does it enable? And what do stakeholders experience when they engage with us?
That is the real test of our brand.
From strategy to execution
As I close, colleagues, we have had robust and important discussions in the past 2 days.
But the value of a Strategic Planning Session is ultimately determined by what happens after we leave this room. We must translate these discussions into implementation.
We must identify what is already working and improve from there. We must identify where there are gaps and address them. We must ensure that our resources are directed towards the capabilities that the new communication environment requires. As we heard from the session, we should not change what is working simply for the sake of change.
But equally, we cannot continue doing things in the same way simply because that is how they have always been done. The communication environment will not wait for us.
So, colleagues, I believe the challenge before us is clear.
We need a GCIS that is faster without compromising accuracy; digital without abandoning other platforms; innovative without losing credibility; coordinated without becoming bureaucratic; and strategic without losing sight of the citizen.
We need a GCIS that listens as much as it speaks. A GCIS that anticipates rather than reacts. A GCIS that sets the agenda rather than simply follows it.
And we need a GCIS that understands that communication is not a support function on the margins of government. Communication is an instrument of governance.
I thank you
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