Deputy Speaker, hon members, Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, the Portfolio Committee on Communications visited the province of Limpopo on an oversight visit study tour from 5 to 8 February 2012. During the visit, the committee visited post offices, community newspapers, radio stations, community radio stations, offices of Sentec, Icasa and the SABC, as well as telecentres.
I just need to say that during this visit it became evident to the portfolio committee that indeed the services being provided through the Department of Communications, the Government Communication and Information System and the various entities were in fact being provided and are making an impact in the province of Limpopo and on the communities in those areas.
However, I want to raise a couple of challenges, which are reflected in the report, as published in the ATCs. The first one relates to the Post Office. In the post offices that we have visited and the presentation that was received, it became evident that there are a high number of vacancies in various post offices.
Also, on its visits to Thusong service centres, the committee found that there were challenges, particularly from government departments, which were not always keen to have offices in these Thusong service centres and to make use of them.
There were also challenges around Internet services, telephone connectivity and, in some instances, the remuneration of employees who worked in these service centres.
With regard to the community radio stations that we visited, it was first evident that these community radio stations were making an impact and were playing a vital role in the communities in which they were broadcasting. There are, however, certain challenges that need to be addressed. One such challenge is the placing of advertisements by government departments with the community radio stations. There is a challenge around that: some get the advertisements; others do not. This is something that will need to be addressed.
It was also very clear to the committee that municipalities were making full use of these community radio stations to address communities on the work that was being done and also to interact with communities through talk shows and phone-in shows.
An area that is also of concern to the committee relates to the sustainability of these community radio stations. They receive funds from government, but without the funding many of them will not be able to sustain themselves in the long term. This is something that needs to be looked at.
The same applies to the community newspapers. The community newspapers that we have visited experienced similar problems, particularly in the placing of advertisements by government departments. Some of them get ads; others do not. This is an area that really needs to be looked at, in particular because these community radio stations and community newspapers are funded by government. They are able to start up through funds from government, and it is therefore necessary to help them survive through the placing of advertisements.
Advertising for radio stations and newspapers is generally a core income- generating base. If they get these adverts, plus adverts and support from the private sector as well, it will help many of them to reach a point of self-sustainability.
Sentech, which is responsible for maintaining signal distribution, has done quite a lot of work - a considerable amount of work - in Limpopo. They have rolled out and switched on 50 low-power transmitters, located in areas where previously there had been no signal distribution or the signal had been of a very poor quality. So, significant progress has been made in rolling out signal distribution in the province of Limpopo.
In terms of the SABC, the committee visited the local office of the SABC in Limpopo. The challenges there relate to the age of the equipment, particularly outside broadcasting vans. Some of them are 12 years old and older. They often break down and this all has a major impact on being able to provide effective services in the province.
The committee also interacted with the staff at the office of the SABC, where a number of concerns were raised. These included the implementation of commitments that were made to staff by management, the condition of the building in which they are working and the effect that the theft of Telkom cable has on outside broadcasting. I have raised just a few of the concerns; the rest are in the report. To conclude, throughout the visit in Limpopo members of the various entities that report to the Department of Communications and the department themselves were present. We want to thank them for being part of that visit, but also to ask them to take the report that is being tabled to work on the recommendations that we have made and to help solve the problems so that we can ensure that we provide even better services in the province of Limpopo. [Applause.]
There was no debate.