Solly Malatsi inherits a communications ministry stuck in the past century

For much of our democracy, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies – formerly the Department of Communications, and other variations – has tended to be the dumping ground either for sycophants or below-par ministers.

With the government of national unity (GNU) and the appointment of the DA’s Solly Malatsi, we not only have our youngest minister – and minister from a different party – but also our sixth minister in the portfolio under President Cyril Ramaphosa, since 2018. That’s almost one minister a year.

The consequence of an absence of focus on the sector comes at a time when its importance has been growing. The biggest technological changes over the past two decades have been taking place in the communication sector – from the explosion of the internet and the shift to digital and social media to the current development of artificial intelligence.

Yet we find ourselves living with a media policy more than two decades old, and a Broadcasting Act last amended in 2000. Add to that the fact we are behind almost everyone in the world in switching from analogue to digital. Perhaps our national performance here is only slightly worse than our efforts to ensure universal access to cheap, fast, reliable internet.

News media

Our news media sector is facing the most extraordinary challenges just to keep afloat. We have seen the recent decision to shut down several Media24 print titles, and in April Daily Maverick shut down for a day to highlight the importance of the media and the financial challenges it faces.

Social media platforms have changed the way we engage, have facilitated the multiplication of the scourge of online harms, and have largely delighted in enriching themselves from news content, with little return to news organisations.

Our broadcast sector and the public broadcaster are expected to operate under a system designed before digital was a reality. The SABC, our public broadcaster, has been the political plaything of numerous ministers seeking to interfere in its affairs.

Myriad issues

While many in the department have opted to remain in 1999, the world is dealing with issues around content moderation, online harms, media sustainability, public-interest content, local content production and media and information literacy.

Just as disinformation is designed to exploit communication gaps, we have seen efforts by some bodies, like the Film and Publications Board (an organisation of the department), to step into areas beyond their mandate, including content regulation. All these issues, before even considering other entities under the department, like the Post Office – another hot mess.

Each of the issues requires nuance and a considered approach, yet few if any have been given the attention they need. It isn’t to suggest nothing has been done on these issues, but look at the last few developments.

Seeing the need to have a new policy, the department, after a series of other attempted policy processes over the past decade, finally issued a draft white paper in October 2020. Stakeholders engaged; there was hope and optimism. Then it was shelved for around two years when a new minister decided it wasn’t a priority.

When a new minister came in and released a revised version, it was staggering how it ignored the input of almost every single stakeholder – from broadcasters, including the SABC and telcos, to civil society and other interest groups.

Nearly four years later, we have no meaningful development on a process that is urgent and hugely overdue.

To add to the insanity, we had an SABC Bill being presented at the start of the year that appears to have been drafted by people who last read about the sector and the SABC in 1998 – it is out of touch, inappropriate, would undermine the independence of the SABC, and, critically, fails to address the SABC’s financial model.

Analogue switch-off

Turning to the analogue switch-off: we are decades late, and it may need to be delayed yet again. Not because it doesn’t need to happen – but because the department appears to have made little progress in ensuring that the poorest and most marginalised (estimated at around one-third of the population) who rely exclusively on free-to-air services for television won’t be cut off when the analogue switch-off occurs.

During its submission to the regulator, Icasa, the SABC recently highlighted the figures of those who are likely to be cut off. In addition to the millions who would lose access to television, the SABC’s key source of revenue – commercial revenue – would be catastrophically affected.

There is no doubt that the SABC needs to change to be a public-interest content provider for a digital era, but negligently or intentionally exposing it to financial collapse simply places a critical public institution at risk.

Huge potential

While the sector is struggling, and despite efforts to take us back to before the invention of the wheel, the new minister doesn’t need to reinvent it. There is huge potential in the calamities that have been exposed. The rapid and ongoing changes offer exciting opportunities to lead the way in new policy development.

The sector has some deep thinkers and brilliant policy people – real survivors and geniuses at managing things on shoestring budgets. What’s needed is genuine urgency and the political will to listen, engage and act.

Many issues are not clear and solutions like how to deal with and regulate social media platforms are global challenges that require careful balancing of rights.

Engaging in the difficult issues, however, is far preferable to silence, or allowing entities to go rogue in a desire to address online harms.

Politics

We do not really have an idea how the GNU will work. While new people from different parties may seek to act and bring change, there is no guarantee that such actions or change would align with the public interest.

Even if such change is in line with the public interest, there remains the obvious discomfort of having the former minister of the department now the deputy minister. This reality, combined with a department already divided and factionalised, has the potential to stall and delay any efforts from a new minister and means that any fresh initiatives may never get out of the starting blocks.

On some level, the party interests are immaterial – what matters is that the sector needs urgent attention. Crucial public-interest issues, like the sustainability of our news media, efforts to censor media, or to leave the most marginalised with no access, are all matters that can undermine, advance or completely derail our democracy and they must be addressed.

We don’t have time to let politics sideline efforts. We need to build on what will be in the public interest.

Here are some suggestions:

• Review the input on the first white paper – issue an updated draft within three months. Then get busy with a final draft for January 2025.


• At the same time, the awful draft SABC Bill (throw it in the bin) noted that the funding model for the SABC would be researched. Excellent! Come up with a funding model for the SABC – there are five months till the end of 2024. Let’s start 2025 with some real potential.


• Get details on the set-top box rollout for poor and marginalised communities. Keep the public informed and get boxes in people’s homes. This will allow the analogue switch-off to finally be completed.


• Find the plans for universal access to the internet – make the provision of fast, cheap, and reliable internet access for all a reality. Set urgent deadlines, report, communicate and keep moving. Keep going with free access in public spaces and places, and make sure schools are a top priority.


• Establish a multi-stakeholder, online harms working group to investigate mechanisms to combat and mitigate harms including incitement and mis- and disinformation.


• Focus the Film and Publications Board on mitigating online child sexual abuse material; strengthen the board’s ability to liaise and engage SAPS to act, and build the capacity of the board and child online safety organisations to offer support to child victims and survivors of online attacks, including cyberbullying and child sexual abuse material.


• Host a national Department of Communications and Digital Technologies dialogue – not merely to talk but to set priorities, build meaningful collaborations and rebuild our national potential to be a world leader in the sector.

To the new minister, and the department, good luck. Our democracy depends on your actions and your drive to get things done in the public interest.

Finally, if in doubt, communicate, listen, engage and act. DM

William Bird is the director of Media Monitoring Africa, Ashoka and a Linc Fellow.