Thabo Mbeki’s task team is fine-tuning a strategy to tackle its brief on government communications, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy
THE 10-member media task group appointed late last year by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki plans to take trips abroad in a bid to conduct in loco inspections of foreign government communication departments.
Task group convener Mandla Langa says taxpayers’ money is not being used and that the travel bill, estimated at about R230 000, will be footed by the United Nations. The UN has, however, not yet given the task group a “conclusive answer”. Langa says destinations which are being discussed with the Foreign Ministry include, among others, Budapest, London, Brussels, Paris, Delhi and Singapore.
Several African countries will also be visited; so far, Ghana is on the list.
“The Foreign Ministry is also setting up meetings between team members and several embassies. The embassies will be able to put us in contact with relevant people in the various communications fields in foreign governments,” Langa says.
He says it is important for members to investigate in loco how different civil societies have grappled with transformation in their respective countries.
Task group representative Val Pauquet says the trips are vital to gather information and observe how effective and efficient government communication services are in the eyes of civil society. With the information gathered during the overseas trip, the team will have armed itself with the necessary ammunition to tackle its brief of government communications and its improvement on the home front.
The task team also plans to use community radio stations in its bid to improve government communications with the public.
Pauquet says radio is a vital medium capable of “straddling the communications divide between the first and developing worlds.
“It’s the most accessible medium and its cost- effectiveness makes it an important vehicle of communication.”
She says the team’s brief — to investigate government’s communications policy and how effective the state is in conveying its information to the general public — can only be efficiently dealt with if opinions and needs of all sectors of the public are noted. “Once the research is gathered, then only can the task group formulate recommendations on improving government communications,” Pauquet says.
The details of the use of radio have not been finalised by the team, but plans indicate that task group members intend to participate in radio shows by the end of May to ask how government can improve its communication methods.
Pauquet says radio is, by far, the most cost- effective medium. African-language radio stations, she says, reach about 1 000 listeners at a cost of R3,67, as opposed to newspapers which cost R20,14 per 1 000 readers. Television is also costly at R22,62 per 1 000 viewers, while magazines cost R25,63 per 1 000 readers.
The task group is also planning a series of public hearings in the nine provinces and Pauquet says members are considering spending an extra day in each of the provinces in order to run workshops on communications.
“It will give various communities a chance to debate and make proposals in their mother tongue, thus providing the group with extra information. The workshops will provide a platform for people to voice their opinion on what changes they would like to see within the communication departments of government,” says Pauquet.
The group has handed questionnaires to all ministries and directors general in a bid to establish the cost of individual communications departments. The task team is also canvassing opinion from the various ministries as to whether they think their departments could be streamlined and run more cost-effectively. Pauquet says the issue of “possibly combining the communications facilities of departments and ministries” is also up for debate.
Twenty-seven of the 31 ministries responded to the questionnaires issued by the task group. In its response, however, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said it saw the exercise as “useless”; representative Ismael Lagardien told Langa he was “averse” to these surveys and would not be responding to the rest of the questions.
The heated issue of affirmative action also features high on the list of priorities of the task team, Pauquet says. The group is appointing researchers and other part-time staff to investigate issues relating to affirmative action as well as assist the task group with background information on its other briefs.