A Keynote Address, 

By 

The Deputy Minister, Honourable Prof. Hlengiwe Mkhize, MP

At the Communication Student Association’s Annual Conference (COMSA)

Date : 08 AUGUST 2014

Venue :  ZK Mathews Hall, UNISA

Time :  08h00-16h00

Prof Mandla Makhanya, Principal and Vice-Chancellor :UNISA;

Dr Britta Zawada, Deputy Executive Dean:College of Human Sciences;

Prof Puleng Lenka-Bula , Executive Dean of students;

Prof Daniel Du Plessis,Chair of Department;

Mr Mduduzi Mabuza, National Student‘s Representative Council-President;

Ms Maria Mohlala, COMSA President; 

Mr Blessing Manale, Executive Head: Public Affairs ,Media Relations and Spokesperson-City of Tshwane;

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

It is an honour for me to stand before you on this august occasion to mark and celebrate the 12th anniversary since this forum was established in 1993. It is significant to remind you that the early 1990s were a period of intense negotiations for the new democratic South Africa. Therefore this organization is one of the democratic structures which set a tone for transformation in the media and communication in a democratic South Africa which was about to be born at that time. 

You will agree with me that media exists to serve the society, to empower our people whether rich or poor, as well as inform and educate them. Citizens are able to make informed judgments on issues of the day because of the information provided by you.

The struggles of your organisation and many others led to the protection of journalists’ rights in the Constitution of South Africa. Section 16 of the Bill of Rights sets out that "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression". It is this very freedom of expression that will enable you to help the government in narrowing the inequality gap which is sometimes perpetuated by lack of information amongst our poorer communities.

Transformation is a topical issue that continues to confront us both in government and the in life generally.  It is an unfinished business and a priority agenda which we will not rest until it is achieved.  It cannot be “a stalled cause” as noted by Rhodes University Professor, Jane Duncan.   It is essential to national building and therefore, fundamental to the image of this country.   It should equally concern you as future journalists for all your founding objectives as COMSA, depends on progress and gains towards equity throughout the value chain.  Given the fact that today we are celebrating 20 years of freedom we all have to agitate and bring about a sense of urgency and radicalism, while defending inclusivity and sustainability.  It is very important for me to mention that this month we are celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Women’s Charter. I hope that in your programmes as COMSA you will pursue the transformation agenda in relation to not only race but also class and gender.   My Department has recently launched the South African Women in ICT Forum.  I therefore, want to invite the women’s division of COMSA to be part of the industry driven initiative supported by the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services. 

Let me briefly introduce to you where government policy is heading to. The introduction of two ministries of communication has created an era of thinking as though we are deviating from the move towards convergence. This however is not the case as the two ministries have different but related responsibilities. These two ministries will be in different clusters which according to the Presidency are geared towards “improving coordination within government and enhancing the delivery of services, aiming for an integrated governance approach in planning and decision making at national and provincial levels”. The Digital Migration Policy positions you as the first generation of inclusive and digitized information. 

Some of you are asking the question; where did it all start and why did this have to happen? This started as far back as May 24, 1844, when the American Samuel Morse dispatched the first telegraphic message over an experimental line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. That single moment of 1844 gave birth to the internet as we know it today: Napster, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, MixIt, Instagram, and many other media applications that proliferate our world today.

Therefore, the biggest impact of digitization stems from our increased access to information.  I could be wrong, but I can safely say that before this gathering, during this gathering and afterwards there is a huge amount of data that has been gathered in the form of “selfies”, tweets and facebook updates, which will be translated into information for someone outside this gathering. With that illustration I am saying digitisation of information and convergence of platforms has become a reality.

Media Innovation, digitization and convergence

Programme Director, 

As we gathered here today, it is exactly 169 years since Morse began to conceive a communications system and this system opened a door for a young person to launch Facebook and be the youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 23 years.

Today we view social media as a platform in its infancy in our continent; yet its first building block was laid 160 years ago. Social media has, however, revolutionized our lives, professional and personal, and today it is impossible to find a strategist, media or business strategist, who does not see social media as integral to any strategies they come up with. 

CNN changed the way media operated, and from a predictable format of set bulletins per day, media broadcast a plethora of content aimed at niche audiences, in a continuous cycle. News bulletins that would previously be shared on one platform are now shared on multiple platforms, including the internet.

As we move towards digital migration, with a promise of multiple channels and huge volumes of information at a high speed, we already have our own SABC 24 hours news channel which broadcasts to the entire continent and can be accessed on line. This is a perfect example of the convergence we are talking about.    

The past twenty years have been characterized by rapid technological developments and the information revolution, stimulated by the concepts of globalization and the information economy. This has revolutionalised the transformation of social, economic, political, technical, and cultural processes resulting in dramatic changes to world economies. The surfacing of these ICT opportunities will need competent and skilled young people who will drive the entire process, throughout the value chain, from the innovation phase, manufacturing, installation, repairs, usage and maintenance in order to ensure inclusive economic benefits.

South Africa has not been an exception to this global technological advancement. Even after retiring from politics our late former president Nelson Mandela continued to support the work of ITU. In the opening ceremony of ITU Telecom World 2009, he underlined that “information and communication technologies are the single most powerful tool we have for human progress”. He also urged participants to “support efforts to connect the world and bridge the digital divide”. 

The convergence of different media in single and multiple platforms is definitely a game changer. For a long time newspapers were trusted as the conveyers of information. However, when radio was invented, people predicted the death of newspapers. Likewise, when television was invented, people predicted the death of radio. However, the birth of each media platform has given rise to possibilities of multiple usages. It has also given rise to a segmentation of the media, and sharper focus from media owners on their audiences. Technology has played an important part in bringing all these media platforms together, and today you can watch television on your laptop, listen to radio on the same laptop, read your newspapers on the same laptop, and make telephone calls, and speak face to face to someone on the other side of the world, in real time, on the same laptop. 

That is another reason the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) encouraged countries to move towards the digitization of broadcasting signals. The digital signals require less bandwidth or spectrum than analogue signals, so more channels can be broadcast with the same amount of spectrum, which is a limited resource. This spectrum liberation will stimulate increased efficiency owing to more rapid adoption of new services and technologies such as broadband and this will ensure greater opportunity for national based innovation.

Digital broadcasting will therefore lead to an increased demand for programmes and content. There will therefore be a huge demand for the development of Local Digital Content which can only be driven through entrepreneurship and Innovation. Do we have young people who would like to see that change as an opportunity for being job creators and or content developers, as against jobs seekers? 

Importance of critical skills

South Africa is a much better place since 1994. According to IMF’s recently-released report, South Africa has posted major achievements since the transition to majority rule in 1994. Per capita GDP has increased by 40 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. The poverty rate has dropped by 10 percentage points. Schools and hospitals have been built in previously underserved areas, and government-financed houses have been made available to many in need. Social transfers now reach more than half of all households.

Even with these achievements however, IMF notes that growth has been lower than in peer emerging markets and commodity exporters. Since 2009, South Africa’s growth has averaged 3 percent compared to 5 percent for emerging markets and 4 percent for commodity exporters. 

To take this country forward, the government has adopted the National Development Plan vision 2030. The NDP calls for improved educational outcomes as many labour market entrants do not have the basic skills sought by potential employers. In addition it says outsiders need to be given a voice in collective bargaining between large established firms and labour unions, so that wage costs allow for job creation by small or new businesses.

With regard to skills development, the NDP calls for commitments from all social partners, not only government, to aim at achieving the following:

•Establishment of a competitive infrastructure, skilled and competent  human resources and an enabling regulatory framework;

•Enhancement of quality education and attainment of critical skills in fields like engineering, finance and ICT by:

oAchieving increased enrolment at universities including the number of students eligible to study towards maths and science based degrees;

oPutting huge investments in post doctoral degrees, research and development, ICT and innovations, science and technology. 

oBuilding a strong relationship between the college sector and industry. SETAs have a crucial role in building relationships between education institutions and the workplace.

My department has recently launched the iKamva National e-Skills Institute (iNeSI). INeSI is a result of the realignment of three institutions namely: National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA), e-Skills Institute and Institute of Satellite Software Applications (ISSA). It is aimed at the development of local e-skills that are required by the sector and the user skills necessary for social and economic inclusion to secure and create jobs. iNeSI brings together government, business, schools, Further Education and Training Colleges, universities, civil society and global development partners to advance the development of local ICT skills that will make South Africa globally competitive, facilitate economic and social inclusion and contribute to economic growth. This is a further opportunity for on-going professional and skills development for all of you, offering critical skills, often sponsored by the private sector and government. 

We are also in the process of making broadband access a fundamental right in the near future, in line with our South Africa Connect policy.  As we build up to that stage, it is imperative to have young people who are innovators and game changers. 

The Developmental agenda

The question is how do we ensure that this country begin to produce journalists who will embrace the development agenda by communicating and giving prominence to national interests and priorities. Our institutions of learning cannot continue to produce communication specialists who are interested in South Africa and the continent as a whole only if there are scandals, wars or any sensational stories.

We are fast approaching the target date for the Millennium Development Goals and discussions have already been started around the post-2015 developmental agenda. It is with no doubt that ICTs are proposed as key enablers of development and are fully recognized in the post-2015 development agenda. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ICTs in general and the Internet in particular, play an important part in ensuring rights-based development, especially enabling wider exercise of freedom of expression and press freedom, which in turn are critical to combating corruption, ensuring gender-sensitivity, deepening accountability, and promoting socially inclusive development”.

Information Ethics

My department is not only concerned with the use of ICTs and the availability of information readily but we are also concerned with the authenticity of this very information. We have strategic partnerships with credible institutions such as UNESCO, as the department, we will be inviting our own institutions of higher learning to pursue research on media ethics. 

As a reminder we need to reiterate that, as future media practitioners you constantly are under scrutiny as to your integrity, accuracy, and objectivity in setting the public agenda.

Multinational media institutions such as CNN, BBC and Sky News certainly continue to bring a plethora of information and news content on our screens on a daily basis, clearly portraying western norms and values which suit their agenda. You have to be able to analyse their content and assist through your writings our masses to understand the modern challenges of our times. The risk of a media which is not critical is that it can cause harm in democracy as we have seen civil unrests in countries like Tunisia and Egypt.   

We therefore need to ask the question: Do journalists always maintain their integrity? Does objectivity exist in journalism? More pertinently, what is the Code of Conduct to media integrity in the social media? If not, why not?

The last question raises curiosity because social media is largely unregulated. We also often see in our daily bulletins that news reporters rely more and more on Facebook posts and Tweets as sources for their news stories than your conventional means of gathering news. Speaking at the United Nations general assembly, the Brazilian president Her Excellency Dilma Rousseff has condemned the recent US espionage. She has called on the UN oversee a new global legal system to govern the internet. She said such multilateral mechanisms should guarantee the “freedom of expression, privacy of the individual and respect for human rights” and “neutrality of the network, guided only by technical and ethical criteria, rendering it inadmissible to restrict it for political, commercial, religious or any other purposes”

It is also important to note that recent experience shows that all developing economies—large and small, low income and middle income—can use ICTs to develop competitive industries, accelerate growth, and promote job creation, notably for women and youth. To enhance competitiveness in these areas, our government is building strategic relationships with businesses.  This is done through building the skills of talent pools, facilitating industry access to finance and entrepreneurial support, and ensuring adequate urban and rural infrastructure to create attractive locations for industry and knowledge workers.

Conclusion

Lastly, as we continue to celebrate our hard-fought-earned democracy acquired twenty years ago we should not forget the heroes and heroines who brought us this freedom.  We should pay homage to all those fearless journalists who defied all odds and refused to legitimize unjust system of apartheid.  They made it their task to ensure that the cruelty of apartheid is known to the international world.  Some of them lost their lives during this process.  This is a sacrifice they have paid so that you and I can have the democracy whose benefits we continue to enjoy today. It is because of what they fought for that today as future journalists you can freely practice your craft.  Therefore, the story of our democracy will never be complete without chronicling the role played by those fearless journalists.    As young and aspirant journalists, we need to honour and maintain this legacy, because it is priceless.  A solid democracy equally needs strong journalism not for its own sake, but journalism with conscience.

I thank you.