Current government communications was lambasted by Comtask, reports Anton Harber
GOVERNMENT communications will go through a massive overhaul and fundamental restructuring if the recommendations of the task group on government communications (Comtask) are accepted.
Comtask, which outlined the findings of its eight-month investigation at a conference in Caledon in the Western Cape last weekend, was scathing in its description of current government communications.
The eight-person committee found that:
* too few resources are applied to communications;
* the government does not give the matter sufficient priority;
* there is a lack of central co-ordination of the government’s message, no co- ordination of messages between government departments and not even co-ordination of messages on one issue within a department; and
* the subject is not taken seriously at a high-enough level.
“Communications remain a Cinderella and the government is substantially impoverished by its own inability to take this crucial aspect of governance seriously,” they concluded.
The severe criticism of government media operations ran almost from top to bottom. The sole exception was the president’s office, which “runs an efficient communications system”.
But “the Cabinet does not”, and ministries are “structurally disempowered” because they have only one media liaison officer, and often these are plucked from departmental structures “regardless of their communication skills or their sympathy with, and understanding of, the policies and persuasion of the minister”.
Similiar criticisms were directed at departments and provinces. The committee cited lack of creativity, shortages of resources and the absence of a clear policy.
The Foreign Affairs Department was singled out for special mention: information flow to overseas missions was inadequate, there was no guidance on priorities, no overall strategy and co-ordination, with the result that the country was putting out a confused set of messages abroad just as the country’s “honeymoon” period was ending.
In one of its more biting remarks, Comtask said: “The term `new South Africa’ is not a sufficient marketing strategy.”
But the strongest words were aimed at the institution which is supposed to deal with all these issues – the South African Communications Services (Sacs). Lacking a “clear mandate”, Sacs appeared as “a collection of undirected components”, all suffering from low morale and with “no clear basis on which to restructure or reform itself”.
So low was its level of interaction with government departments -which should be the core of its work – that two-thirds of ministeries, departments and provinces only had contact with them “from time-to-time” and 17% “not often”.
Comtask reported a “lack of enthusiasm for Sacs across the government and in the media” and “low credibility”.
There was no evidence that the man brought in by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki to transform Sacs, Sol Kotane, had done anything to change the situation. In fact, he showed his contempt for the work of Comtask by packing up his bags halfway through the conference – having said nothing in the debate until then – and leaving.
Apparently he had to attend a conference in Harare, but made no apology nor offered an explanation to the meeting and left behind no one to argue his case. He boasts a staff complement of 500, but apparently none of them were able to participate in the rest of the conference.
Comtask went on to recommend a complete restructuring of the system, including the closure of Sacs, allowing ministries command over their department’s communications, giving the matter a higher financial and policy priority and outsourcing most media production.
The only centralised bodies in their new structure would be an office in the presidency to co-ordinate overall messages and avoid duplication, and a small body of experts to bulk-buy media space for the government in order to effect savings.
There was also a host of secondary suggestions: that old South African censorship laws still on the statute book be cleaned up; that Channel Africa receive funding to continue broadcasting across the continent; that a system be set in place for the long-term funding of the South African Broadcasting Corporation; and that the Open Democracy Act be passed into law to fulfill the mandate of open and accountable government.
As the conference drew to a close, it was clear that Comtask had come a long way since it was set up by the deputy president last year. A major focus at that conference was the status of white-dominated media and the level of criticism aimed at the government.
Comtask, under the chairmanship of author Mandla Langa, expressed concerns about these issues, but chose to refer them to the Competitions Board. It kept its focus on the gross inadequacies of government communication, and resisted the temptation to divert attention to the media itself.
But many at the conference were left asking whether these recommendations – so different from the media critique frequently offered by Mbeki – would be implemented. Certainly, the signs were not all good: when Kotane abandoned the meeting, it was left to Mbeki’s representative, Thami Ntenteni, to take up the fight to keep Sacs in place and try to re-direct criticism towards the media and away from the government. And Deputy Minister Essop Pahad appealed to the meeting “to be kind to Sacs”.
A Congress of South African Trade Unions representative also rushed to the defence of Sacs with a raw denunciation of what she said amounted to a “privatisation” and the loss of jobs. The irony of trade unions, a South African Communist Party chief (Pahad) and a former African National Congress propaganda artist (Ntenteni), supporting an arch-apartheid creation was not lost on the audience.
Comtask will now wrap up its report by the end of the month, and send it on to the deputy president. Will he, delegates were left to ponder, accept recommendations he does not particularly want to hear?