Programme Director,
Acting Director-General of the Department of Communications, Mr Gift Buthelezi,
Board members and station managers from the Community Television sector,
Representatives of our regulating Authority, ICASA,
Executives of the various local broadcasting organisations,
Colleagues from other government departments and state-owned enterprises,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning!
Allow me on this important occasion of the department of Communications to wish you a happy and productive 2013, although belated.
I am confident that 2013 will be one of the most remarkable years of our democracy, as we all work together to realise the core aspiration of our people to attain a better life for all. I say this because, this year marks the 20th anniversary since our independent regulator was established. We owe the existence of the multiplicity broadcasting platforms to this independent regulation.
This is major achievement which we should not underestimate. Equally in the broadcasting sector, we mark the 20 years since the first community radio licence was issued in the country. As government we are compiling a comprehensive sector review to reflect on our journey since 1993, the achievements and how we can improve in our quest to build a better future for our people.
This is a very important journey to be told only by government without the involvement and active participation of the public, industry and all the stakeholders, particularly from the community broadcasting sector. As some of you may recall, this is a sector that has been fiercely contested during the intense Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations. As a department, we will appreciate your contribution in helping us to narrate this interesting and yet so complex journey in the last 20 years. Details will be furnished by the Department in due course regarding where to submit your contributions.
Ladies and gentlemen!
We meet at this workshop today to discuss another important part of the community broadcasting sector which has in the last 4 years become an inevitable reality, namely community Television. Our discussions today take place amid negative economic downturns across the globe evidenced by financial crisis engulfing many first world countries in Europe and elsewhere. Although our economy has cushioned us against the severity of this crisis to-date, it is however not immune to this continuing crisis.
If this economic downturn prolongs, we will feel it hard because the sign are already emerging such as growing challenge of unemployment, especially for the Youth, the rapid increase in the number of people migrating to the cities and growing pressures on our national fiscus. This challenge is also evidenced in our widening budgeting deficit implying that over revenue generation is already affected due to this economic recession in Europe as our significant trading partner.
As government, not only do we need to develop strategic policy interventions that exploit this reality, we need to spend prudently on projects that spur economic growth, accelerate rural development and create jobs for the unemployed in our country, particularly the youth.
It is, therefore important and inevitable that the discussions at this workshop get located within this scenario. Previous researches about Community Television have revealed that community TV cannot survive without government support. This support, revealed the research, goes beyond just policy. At the Community Television Workshop hosted by the department in 2010, it was recommended that the community radio support programme should be replicated to community Television. Parliament was also petitioned in an attempt to force the Department to implement this recommendation. The department took a strategic assessment of all these proposals resulting in the policy positions contained in both our Community Broadcasting Support Strategy and the Business Model documents which have been circulated.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We take cue from the Father of Chinese Revolution, Chairman Mao Tse Tung, who taught all of us that, only a blockhead cudgels his brains on his own or get together with a group to find a solution without making an investigation. “Investigation”, continues Mao Tse Tung may be likened to the long months of pregnancy and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is indeed to solve it”.
This workshop and the draft Framework to be presented is an outcome of this investigation spanning over 4 years in an attempt to solve the Community TV problem.
Our discussions and engagements at this workshop, ladies and gentlemen, should not be guided by a simple fact that we want community television in this country as it is provided for in the policies. In an environment where unemployment is rife and public funding is overly stretched, we need to ask ourselves, what is the value position for community television? This question should not elude us as it explains our reasons for ignoring all the risks associated with television business, thus justifying public funding and investment into community television instead of education, health, etc. None of the existing community television models seem to address this question head-on.
Community TV cannot not be a social enterprise in the manner that Community radio has largely been. It requires an attractive value proposition that is based on a financially sound economic modelling that is strategically linked to and located within other government programmes relating to economic development and job creation to justify government investment. Furthermore, this investment should be protected and safeguarded by a strong governance model instead of the fluid one, prevalent in the community radio environment currently.
In the same token ladies and gentlemen, private sector investment in this sector is critical in the establishment of viable Community TV sector. Government alone cannot achieve the aspiration of building a sustainable community broadcasting model. We are also inviting the private sector investors to work with us in moving this mountain to the next level.
Ladies and gentlemen! Community TV has the immense potential to revolutionise our content industry, create jobs and build a window to promote provincial developments, including our local languages. These are tangible developments that ordinary people would like to see if the 20 year sector review is to bring meaning to them. It is on that basis that as a department we have put together this policy framework to share with you prior to making it public to get your preliminary comments.
This may not be a perfect Framework, but it nevertheless gives us an opportunity to set the discussions in motion in our quest to address the issues raised earlier. We must inform our people in order to understand that although we cannot change the situation radically in a short time, we can still achieve prosperity and create hope and belief that the future looks good. That they can see in the community TV that mirrors their daily lives, speaks their language and talk directly to their belief systems. Community Television has the potential to open all these possibilities.
As a department we are committed to making Community TV a reality and we sincerely hope your preliminary inputs will enrich the draft framework. We are looking forward to your open suggestions and inputs so that together we can build a community television sector that is responsive to joblessness and rural development and further drive developmental objectives in the Republic so as to improve our people lives.
I thank you!
