Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
29 May 2003
Madam Speaker,
The significance of information age is that it has created information societies, societies that depend for their economic survival on the immediate access to large amounts of information on a global scale. It is in this context that communication in our country has become a sphere of academic persuasion, lucrative business and an area that government regulates.In our time the most contested areas of communication is mass media and how to disseminate information with speed.
The ANC resolved in its recent national conference in Stellenbosch, that media and communications are contested terrains and therefore not neutral. But reflect the ideological battles and power relations on race, class and gender in our society.
The conference further resolved that the public broadcaster, the SABC, plays a critical role in shaping opinions and building societal values, including the moral fibre of our society, socio-economic transformation and the building of a united, patriotic nation.
It is against this background, that we should celebrate the achievements of our government on the communication front since 1994. We turned an institution that was used for selfish ends and returned to the people. Our legislative and regulatory framework has turned the SABC into a public broadcaster that gives a South African expression.
We watched with dismay over what role broadcasters could play with the invasion of Iraq by American and British troops. This was a clear illustration of how a broadcaster can simply be turned into weapon of war. It is our fervent belief that never again will the SABC be used by those in power as a weapon of war and propaganda. Never again will it be a tool to misinform, brainwash and control people. In this regard our government has turned the tide, and positioned our public broadcaster as a reliable informer, educator and entertainer.
We also welcome the latest initiative by the SABC in issuing their draft editorial policy to the public for comment.
During our interaction with the SABC and in other public fora, the ANC has consistently raised the issue of language on the public broadcaster. We have repeatedly made the point, that language is a very important and emotional issue, especially in a country with diverse language groups as ours. It impact on the dignity of people and their sense of belonging. Language is a tool of building a united and patriotic nation. A public broadcaster as a mirror of our society is obliged to reflect peoples way of life, their cultures, their beliefs in own languages.
It was with this in mind that we accepted the governments proposal that we provide in law for two regional stations, which will further enhance the capability of the public broadcaster to attend to the issue of languages. In our future interactions with the SABC we will take up this matter with the seriousness it deserves. These stations must be on air sooner.
Similarly, we will have to pay attention to our community of the deaf people. Deaf South Africa an organization of the deaf in the country, say from their research there are four million deaf people in the country.
The ANC at its national conference resolved that the public broadcaster must ensure that its television programmes have 'Closed Captioning', sign language and other means to cater for the deaf.
This is the same demand that the Deaf South Africa put before our portfolio committee during the course of last year. We will continue to engage with the SABC on how best and how soon can the deaf of our country realize this dream.
We welcome the fact that the government under the Media Development and Diversity Agency Act have now established and funded the Board. One of the central tasks of the Board is to encourage ownership and control of, and access to, media by historically disadvantaged communities as well as by historically diminished indigenous languages and cultural groups.
The work of this Board, if well executed will be another milestone in urban and rural development. This will enhance the capability of government to take information either in electronic or print form to areas that could otherwise not be reached by any media.
Introduction and growth of media in South Africa will deepen democracy and encourage the participation of people in the democratic life of the country and hence enabling people to become their own liberators.
Icasa remains a clear signpost of how far as a country we have come and gone in introducing regulatory stability. Today we have a clear, legal, regulatory environment. Investors in the media and communication sector enjoy a predictable environment. Now with the benefit of hindsight, we can confidently say the merger between IBA and SATRA has paid dividend. Difficult and enormous as the work before Icasa might be, we are confident that the regulator is capable of addressing the concerns of industry and the public.
What government must determine, is a correct funding model for Icasa. We need to determine accurately both in human and financial resources what we required to build a capable and independent regulator.
Industry players who have huge resources continuously undermine Icasa through litigation. This eats into the already inadequate resource of the regulator. Government must definitely examine this situation and consider funding legal fees of the regulator directly from the fiscus.
Madam Speaker, over some time now, our portfolio has interacted with the advertising industry. These are companies that advertise a product in order to lure consumers into buying. They do this through political messages, culture and use our belief systems to get at the consumer. How we look at advertising and whether we agree with how it is done is a philosophical question.
What we know is that this is a big money spinning industry. It needs the majority of our people who happen to be black and African in particular to enrich the owners of capital. The content of these ads must be South African and promote the proudly South African products.
We expect the industry in the next three years to transform at equity and decision making levels and also employ people mainly from the previously disadvantaged communities. It must be a world class industry that is able to reflect our South Africaness. It pleases us to report that in our opinion the industry agrees with our point of view. They have since adopted a 'Value statement of the marketing and communication industry'. We view this statement as a step in the right direction, however there is an English idiom that says 'the taste is in the pudding'. It is our sincere hope that in our continuous interaction the industry must demonstrate to us that self-regulation works without any legal intervention.
On signal distribution, Parliament gave Sentech an opportunity to deliver services through a multi media license. The Telecoms Act 2001 also gave Sentech an international gateway. These licenses have given Sentech an enabling environment to roll out services beyond its traditional signal distribution. We are encouraged that Sentech is already switching telecommunications traffic between South Africa and other countries.
We expect that Sentech should use its multi-media license to roll out to South Africans tele-education and tele-medicine services. Tele-medicine in particular will enable rural communities to access the best medical advice from well- resourced areas.
Last year there was a great deal of excitement around the country when we were processing Electronic Communication Transactions Act. What we intended was the development of the information economy for social prosperity and it is essential that we remove barriers to electronic communication and transaction in the Republic. We also intended to provide legal certainty and confidence in the sector.
But for us as the ANC we believe that universal service mainly to the under serviced areas of our country is paramount. It is therefore important that we speed-up the setting of the .za domain name authority for it to resume responsibility from the incumbent. We can only insist that government does everything possible to ensure progress in this regard.
The bigger challenge for SAPOS is the rollout of physical addresses to the all households in the country. This is critical because a physical address is a social and economic resource, which enables citizens to participate in the economic and social activities of a country. A citizen without an address is a foreigner in his country of birth.
We wait for the rolling out of the Public Internet Terminals to the two hundred identified sites, which are mainly in previously disadvantaged areas. The rollout will enable access to computers, Internet and E-mail, fax machines and photocopiers by many of our people. In many ways this will push back the frontiers of poverty.
Telkom, as the primary provider of the telecommunication services in South Africa was successfully listed in both the JSE and New York stock exchange. This a major sign of confidence in our economy. Telkom IPO has shown that we are able to compete with the best in the world. The stability of the share price also demonstrates this confidence.
Many of our people have exercised the option to buy Telkom shares and this demonstrates the eagerness and readiness of South Africans to participate in the economic life of the country and be empowered.
The policy review as announced by the DG of communications will give industry players and the public an opportunity to celebrate our achievements and also to correct the weakness of our legal and regulatory framework. We welcome this announcement. In conclusion madam speaker I would like to wish comrade Ned well in his new area of work. Your knowledge and diligence in communication work was our source of strength.