The breakfast show programme presented by the SABC in collaboration with The New Age is a good show. [Applause.] The problem is that, when one asks what is wrong with advertising in The New Age, you are always told that they are not in compliance with the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The problem with that is, we must ask ourselves the following questions. Who dominates the print media industry? It is the big four. Who dominates the printing industry? It is the big four. [Interjections.] Who dominates the distribution? It is the big four. Who has the majority representation in the advertising industry board? It is the big four. Who controls the SABC and funds it? It is the big four. [Interjections.]
One cannot take The New Age to the guillotine. The fact of the matter is that we have a problem in the country, where the big four, some of them in partnership with the DA, control almost everything about this particular matter. [Interjections.] I am coming to you. What is different about the Department of Communications? Unless you cannot see or cannot read, and you read the report and the presentation before the committee, then you will see what is different. If people decide to sleep during the committee meetings, that is their problem.
In the committee meetings which I chair, we have noted a substantive progress in terms of improvement within the Department of Communications. The Minister, the Deputy Minister and the other speakers from the ANC have outlined the achievements by the ANC. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can say about you. You are talking about Cape Town 2020. Whose brainchild is that? It is the ANC's. [Applause.] What exactly is it that you have? Just put it on the table.
The 2020 broadband penetration of the Internet is the brainchild of the ANC, not yours. So you cannot come and claim the glory. You are not Kaiser Chiefs; you cannot claim the glory. [Laughter.] This glory belongs to the ANC, which from time to time is elected by South Africans to rule or to lead on their behalf, because they understand it is the only party which understands the aspirations and needs of South Africans. [Interjections.]
Let me help you about the local loop unbundling. The regulator respects the rule of law. It is unlike the people who go to the police and lay criminal charges and go to the Public Protector and institute an investigation, but they cannot wait for the outcome of those processes. [Interjections.] You went and laid a criminal charge, and you also went to the Public Protector and instituted an investigation. The Minister has been co-operating with all those structures and at no point has she disrespected the Public Protector or even the other processes. She respects due process because she is a member of the ANC and the ANC respects the rule of law. [Interjections.]
Let me help you with local loop unbundling. This regulator, you may think that you can fault it, but they know that in South Africa there is the rule of law. This regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa, went through a process of developing a framework of local loop unbundling. When they finished that, they wanted to implement it. You have a structure called the Complaints and Compliance Committee which ruled on the issue of the local loop unbundling. The decision of the Complaints and Compliance Committee is binding on the regulator. The matter is in the courts of this country. What do you expect the regulator to do? The regulator understands the rule of law, that the court processes must proceed until they are finished. After that, they will proceed to do whatever they can do, because they observe the rule of law. [Interjections.]
I just wanted to help you, because you are confused. They clarified these issues in the portfolio committee. Where were you? Were you busy exchanging views with the Sunday Times or posting stories to the Sunday Times, leaking information? Is that what you were busy doing? The regulator explained in the portfolio committee what they are doing about that particular matter.
Keep it up, Dr Mncube. Keep respecting the rule of law. [Applause.] I am done with The New Age. Do you want me to go back to that? What a show, between the SABC and The New Age, where plus or minus 4 million South Africans interact directly with their elected representatives. [Applause.] Because we are democratic, even the Premier of the Western Cape participated in the programme; that is how these things work. If you want me to go back again, I will go back. [Laughter.]
Uyabona ungakhe uwubase umlilo ungazi kuwotha. Awuzi kuwotha lo mlilo. [Do not punch above your weight.]
Regarding the issue of digital terrestrial television, DTT, digital migration, you must read the policies from the department. Hon Minister, as the ANC, we will urge you to put a timeframe for the SABC and e.tv in respect of the issue of standard control. If they are not doing so, you must review your policy. They do not have a political mandate. We cannot fail South Africans. Come June 2015 we should have reached our target.
About the issue you are talking about, the problem is that you do not read these policies. That is a problem. You just talk, you think as you talk or you talk as you think. [Laughter.] The broadcasting standard issue lies squarely with the free-to-air broadcasters and not with the Minister. The Minister was helping because for a year there was no movement between the SABC and e.tv. She tried to help. Now she finds herself in court for trying to help. That's why the Minister was saying, again, that because you are a member of the ANC, you respect the rule of law; you respect the court decision.
Charlotte Mampane, thank you very much for your leadership in the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa, Usaasa. You are doing very well. Continue to do us proud. [Applause.] [Interjections.] You will see it, if you do not see change and progress. I do not know where she comes from. Maybe she comes from First National Bank, FNB; I do not know. You cannot see changes and progress? Where does she come from, where does the chief executive officer of Usaasa come from? Is that not progress? What do you want to know about progress? Or do you want progress between the Sunday Times and DA? To you, that is the only progress; any other progress you do not understand. [Interjections.]
Hon Minister, this selective quoting of the Global Information Technology Report of 2013 is a problem. If you read that report, it is comfortable with the political and business environment. The political environment is our responsibility and that report is comfortable with the political environment. In fact, the report is saying the only problem we have in the country, amongst other things, is the cost to communicate and not the political environment.
Why then do you raise all these things? Why are you not true to the report? It is because you like to spin things around. The report, in terms of the political environment, clears us and says the political environment in South Africa, the business environment, is "sharp sharp" like the late Vuyo Mbuli always said. The report is saying it is "sharp sharp". But you come and stand here and want to create an impression that the ANC is politically unsound, whereas the same report says the political and business environments are okay, except the cost to communicate, which causes us, amongst other things, to be where we are. Which report have you read? Which report have you read, unless you have read a report by the Sunday Times, which you had written yourself and given to them, as you normally do. [Interjections.] Unless you have done that.
I must take this opportunity, despite everything else, to commend the members of the portfolio committee. The members of the Portfolio Committee on Communications are good members and they indeed contribute, but the problem happens when they are here. [Laughter.] I do not know why, but at the committee level they are doing very well. I must thank all members of the portfolio committee, including the members from the opposition. [Applause.] I must also thank the support staff of the committee, my personal assistant, Wandile Mguga; and Thembi Mngoma, the committee secretary, who is overworked - we have one secretary instead of two, and the newly appointed content adviser who has joined us. The ANC supports Budget Vote No 27: Communications. Thank you. [Time expired.]