Chairperson, I thought you were going to say "deployed elder"! Thank you very much.
Firstly, hon members, let me express our great appreciation to all the contributors who have spoken in the debate today. I think they have all made vitally important points that have driven home the message. One of the most fascinating things to come out of this debate is the concurrence that all the political parties have in echoing the sentiments the hon Van den Berg stated in his contribution to the debate.
He highlighted for us the vital importance of communications in the everyday life of our people. It brings us right to the centre of the central theme of this debate; that is, it is not technology for the sake of technology, but it is technology for the enhancement and the improvement of the lives of the people. I think that has been the most powerful message that has come out of this debate. How can we find concurrence with each other - notwithstanding the fact that we may come from different trajectories - around one single common viewpoint, that is, how can we best serve the interests of the people?
Hon Kholwane, the chairperson of the portfolio committee, is I think justified in drawing our special attention to the vital importance of the regulator in all of this work. He calls upon us to make sure that there are enough resources and says they must be mobilised to empower the regulator to do its job properly. I think there is also great unanimity among the speakers in reminding us that the public broadcaster is perhaps one of the most important institutions in our society today, and the caution that the public broadcaster is not a state broadcaster is most certainly welcome.
I thought that it was quite funny that hon Van den Berg should say we should never let a politician manage the SABC, and yet it is you, the politician, who give us the managers for the SABC and we work with what you give us! The review of the broadcasting policy landscape is an important initiative. It must take us into those terrains and into understanding this instrument of social cohesion in our evolving democracy.
Hon Koos van der Merwe has left the House, and I will have to swing back to Zondi when we think about those international visits! Let me take this opportunity to say that the SABC remains a critical focus for us. We have made significant strides in stabilising the corporation, and this was acknowledged by all the speakers. We are appreciative of the leadership of the board and the executive leadership of the corporation and, particularly, the leadership of Dr Ben Ngubane.
I am aware that in a short while, on his return from Libya, the President will announce the appointment of the remaining four members of the SABC board. There will also be the announcement of who will be the Deputy Chairperson. The SABC board informs me that within a couple of weeks they will be entering into the process of finalising the selection of the chief executive officer for the SABC.
On the question of the most important project, on which all the members agreed and which is the implementation of the digital migration programme, every speaker highlighted the vital importance that we must meet the 2013 deadline. It is clear that we remain very confident that we are on track and that we have the enthusiastic participation of all the state-owned entities to achieve precisely that.
We are told that a successful trial, conducted by broadcasters and the signal distributor, has demonstrated that South Africa is ready for the process of migrating from Analogue Terrestrial Television to Digital Terrestrial Television, DTT. Substantive work has been done by all the parties concerned. For the first time we now have an implementation plan that has been constructed by the private sector together with the public entities of the department. My office has determined that we shall establish a special implementation office to drive the DTT programme. It is a project in which the people will be about 30 strong, totally focused on driving the DTT programme.
We are indeed very encouraged by the fact that we have received all this support from the parties and speakers concerned. We want to thank you very much and we wish you all a very good year. I thank you.