Chairperson, the hon Minister in the Presidency, Collins Chabane, hon Deputy Minister, Members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this opportunity to speak on the Government Communication and Information System, GCIS.
We have been told that the main task of GCIS has been to communicate government information, what government does, and deliverables from the government to our masses. Some of those masses are in faraway, remote areas and, as a result, some of the communication in the past did not reach them. That is why the first thing that GCIS - thanks, Ma Storey - realised was that we need to transform communication in the country. That transformation was supposed to take place in the following areas: ownership, distribution, content and languages.
Let me just speak briefly about ownership. The media, especially the print media, in the main is owned and that type of ownership needed to be transformed. It needed to be transformed so that, instead of just having big media houses, we would also have small commercial media and also community media. These are the types of media that are found now in disadvantaged areas like the rural areas and the townships in the urban areas. The other part of that transformation is that in the media houses' newsrooms, you need to implement transformation in line with the policies of the ANC government: transformation of race discrimination, gender discrimination and disability discrimination. This type of transformation must take place in the media newsrooms.
A lot has already been achieved in South Africa, if we compare it to other countries, especially in the rural areas, which are not easy for anybody to develop, because of a lack of facilities and backwardness still found there. We really need to resource the community media that is in the rural areas. Otherwise, if we don't, we will be setting them up for failure. This government is already finding means and ways to resource them better because, remember, all along, communication in South Africa has been dominated by big media.
It is very important to also point out that there are achievements in South Africa. I just want to highlight that by mentioning that in agriculture, for example ... No, [Interjections.] she is being naughty because I am busy. [Laughter.] [Interjections.] Alright, you have it. I hear the money is being pocketed in the back pocket. Mine is in the inside pocket of my jacket. [Laughter.] I just wanted to say that analysts in South Africa have mentioned the achievement of communication in our media, especially government media, by saying that in agriculture, where we want to beneficiate and manufacture agricultural raw material in South Africa, there has been a great improvement. This is because people who are in agriculture for the first time are receiving information about different agricultural activities that they can embark on. They have a broad choice of selecting which agricultural activities they want to be involved in.
Look at Johannesburg, for example, where they are slaughtering 10 000 heads of cattle a day in the abattoir, to supply the demand in Johannesburg, as well as 15 000 sheep a day. All the remains of skin go into footwear and a lot of agricultural people are realising that there is a big market, if you do livestock farming, because the end product is that we are no longer exporint our raw material. In fact, in the value chain, about two levels of that - treating the skin and so on - is done in Johannesburg, which is part of manufacturing.
I have heard that in diamonds, in Botswana - this information also comes from communication - with Botswana now being the number one international producer of diamonds, in the Kgalagadi, two levels of the value chain of diamond production is beneficiated in Botswana. When we hear all these things about ourselves and neighbouring states, that is important information that becomes available for South Africans to know how best to handle their economic activities. They can then copy best practice from other countries, their neighbours, and also from their own neighbours within South Africa.
So, I just mentioned that because I wanted to highlight how important communication is, especially in a developmental state where we need to create jobs. This communication, in the past, has just been in the favour of the rich. We want media communication to be in favour of even the poor. We have to use it to develop jobs. I have heard that in education somebody asked why there was an alliance issue. It is part of communication to communicate all kinds of deliverables, not just in terms of sewerage or dustbins, but also in education, because if we don't skill this nation, there will never be development in this nation.
The educating and training of artisans and all kinds of skills are very important. Unless we communicate that to our nation, we will be failing in our effort to communicate what the government is tasked to perform. I wish to support this budget. Thank you. [Applause.]