Ferial Haffajee
The government’s new information service buckles down this week to replace the moribund South African Communication Services (Sacs).
The two men who will lead the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) are both senior African National Congress brains. Joel Netshitenzhe will head the new- look information system; he currently serves as deputy director-general in the president’s office.
His deputy, Yacoob Abba Omar, served until last week as Armscor’s general manager for corporate communication. Both worked in the ANC’s highest military and political structures and were among the organisation’s best propagandists.
Last year the government-appointed communications task group, Comtask, recommended this new body replace Sacs and become the fulcrum of a powerful new system with greater funding and political support. Significantly, it makes no provision for government mass media; both new leaders stress they see no role for government newspapers or news agencies.
Sacs employs about 700 civil servants, some of whom could be retrenched in a sharp restructuring exercise. It was a creation of apartheid’s propaganda arm and never intended to carry out the mass communication and campaigning required by a democracy.
This week Netshitenzhe and Omar will begin combing through boxes of applications to begin to craft a team that will lead the change. “It’s a mammoth task to restructure an institution not in line with the objectives of a new, democratic government,” says Netshitenzhe.
Just how out of line Sacs was became evident after the investigation by the task group which reported that: “It suffers from poor morale and no mandate. It has a low level of interaction with departments and provinces and meets their needs fitfully.”
New government leaders kept away from Sacs because of its reputation and didn’t use its services. Many staff have since left; more could go as the two new heads carry out audits of every aspect of Sacs’ work. They want to investigate where savings can be made and where any duplication can be cut. Advertising spend by government will be centrally co-ordinated. That should free funds to spend where it counts.
And where it counts is in “the message” government wants to get across; something the old Sacs did not quite get. “The central message is that the foundation has been laid and that the building has begun,” says Netshitenzhe.
Focus group research, he claims, has found this is what most South Africans are thinking. “That’s the overall sense; but people also feel much more can be done. We want to get across a message of civic duty and to say to people ‘You are your own liberators.'”
That’s the internal image. Equally important is to brand South Africa overseas. “Image is more than a logo,” says Omar, who believes that strategies to deal with crime and to provide a better investment climate need matching communication strategies.