29 June 2025

Honourable Speaker

Introduction

As we debate the budget vote for today, I stand to amplify transformative pillars that will be important in shaping South Africans’ broader communication landscape. These aspects revolve around empowering marginalised voices through media diversity and bridging the digital divide that continues to exclude many of our South Africans from participating meaningfully in the digital economy and ICT space.

The commitment to transformation finds expression in the MDDA’s R172 million through the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, which will seek to empower 66 communities with broadcast projects and 18 small commercial media initiatives. These initiatives represent our people and must be well-resourced to be effective. Our support for these initiatives directly addresses the historic injustices of the past, which were the exclusion of women, youth and persons with disability from media ownership and content creation. The revised MAC sector code gives an element of practicality to this transformation by setting measurable targets for representation and procurement.

Misinformation and Disinformation

The digital era has brought both opportunities and unprecedented threats to our democracy. While the GCIS actively engages in curbing the use of misinformation and disinformation, more work is required in this regard. The efforts to curb this rise of misinformation will gain urgency as we approach the 2026 Local Government election, where foreign actors and local bad-faith elements will undoubtedly weaponize misinformation. Programs from the GCIS that speak to these elements must be take centre stage within this cycle.

Programme 2

Content production is central to the initiatives of Programme Two. The GCIS produces and disseminates content across its various platforms and products to keep South African informed and empowered. This essential work is funded through the Products and Platforms subprogramme under the Content Processing and Dissemination programme, which has been allocated a budget of R143.5 million over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period

Infrastructure development project remains one of the key hindrance factors when it comes to bridging the digital divide. However, there are other factors that play a role, such as accessibility. The GCIS digital transformation strategy, with its 300 hours of annual streaming content on GoZa TV and other platforms, ensures that South Africans can access crucial information. The MDDAs’ parallel Investment in digital skills training for 60 community projects creates continuous programs for those who are the key drivers and enablers of change.

Fiscal responsibility remains paramount, as previously noted in the analysis of the R2.8 billion medium-term budget. The approach to the MDDA’s funding reduction demonstrates this principle. By focusing on sustainability training and shared resources, we also believe in the construction of community media that can thrive beyond government subsidies. The 196.5 million from the universal service fund levy and 126.5 million departmental transfers are deployed to maximise impact. This isn’t an austerity measure, it is, however, a wise investment in self-reliant community institutions.

As we move forward with implementing these programmes, we continue to be guided by our vision for communication as a means of liberation and empowerment. Our dedication to these initiatives, which align with empowerment and national transformational goals, is one we aim to uphold throughout the 7th Administration, and it is taking shape in the department’s APPS and those of entities across the board. This budget demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that South Africa’s media landscape fully reflects the diversity of its people.

The threats that are facing these smaller players remain significant, ranging from the R100 million community medium debt to Sanitech, to the sophisticated disinformation networks, but the solutions that we are envisioning through this budget are equally to the task of addressing these shortfalls.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this budget vote lays the foundation for communication sector reform that mandates the aspirations that we seek to drive the country towards. Whatever the challenges may be, we must continue to advocate for job creation, building a capable, ethical and developmental state and the overall reduction of poverty. These factors must be observed throughout all the work we engage in. This must be the unifying commonality.

The ANC supports these allocations because we understand that true freedom requires access to information and the central role of dissemination. Together, we can build a landscape that reflects our thriving democratic landscape.

I thank you