Chairperson, let me add to thanking the Dept of Arts and Culture for this long overdue, timely summit on "Creating a caring and proud society" and for inviting me to participate. The theme is very important and talks to the challenges faced by our democracy, held at an appropriate venue, the birth place of the Freedom Charter, which laid the foundations for our democratic constitution.
The Minister's presentation talks to the triple challenges faced by our country mainly being unemployment, poverty and inequality. There seem to be sufficient consensus on the need to fast track economic transformation, a cornerstone of a socially cohesive society, as failure to do so will lead to citizen's revolt. As part of the fast tracking we need to review our approach to economic empowerment, given that in the current reality, a number of BEE stakes are encumbered. The question is shouldn't we cost the damage done by years of slavery and oppression against the black majority, then find creative ways of funding this, leading to supporting and investing in real and unencumbered economic participation by the HDI. Thanks to Minister Pandor, for reflecting on the state of the economic inequalities in SA and sharing ideas on areas needing intervention ranging from access to quality education, more investment in Agriculture, manufacturing of more goods and investment in innovation and knowledge intensive green economy; and the gross inequality in salaries. Coming from the media, information and communications sector, I would like to enhance the input by adding the following comment:
Whereas our constitution and laws provides for social justice, human rights and equality, in practice millions of South Africans are denied these rights, especially the above socio-economic rights. The Constitution Act of 1996 protects and provides for the freedom of the media, freedom of expression and access to information. These rights are enjoyed by a few and not by all citizens as envisaged by the founding parents of our democracy. The rural poor and working class in general have little or no access to information, be it basic information (news and current affairs) to available economic opportunities. Where information is available it is in languages not spoken in these communities like English and Afrikaans. This does not assist in the attempts to bridge the socio economic gaps. Information is knowledge, power and it empowers. Therefore, as we strive for social cohesion, in addition to the triple challenges, we therefore suffer from an information and knowledge divide. Communities of nations gathered as member states at UNESCO and adopted the Windhoek Declaration aimed at promoting press freedom, independent and pluralistic media.
Chairperson, it is my considered view that it is not by accident that member states adopted declarations like the Windhoek Declaration and WSIS Declaration, etc. It is because of an acknowledgement of the importance of diverse and pluralistic media for the sustainability of democracy. Diversity of views and opinions promoting different perspectives enriches citizens to participate in a people driven democratic process. It is therefore in the interest of social cohesion and nation building to support media diversity and pluralism.
Media being recognised as the fourth state (in addition to the legislature, judiciary and the executive) is an important medium for both state and citizens. It informs, educates, entertains and provides a platform for dialogue necessary for democratic discourse. Any democracy for it to be sustainable, it needs free and diverse media.
Chairperson, it is critical to appreciate the broader context, to emphasize the significant role media can play in helping the different people to communicate with each other in order to strengthen democracy, promote a culture of human rights and enable all to participate fully in economic growth and speed up transformation and development. This can only be achieved if every citizen (where ever s/he is located, rural or urban, poor or rich) has access to a choice of a diverse range of media, in a language of his/her choice. Media also provides a window of transparency in government and injects life to a country's economy by publishing developmental, financial and market information to citizens, allowing them to participate freely and fruitfully in their country's economy. Access to communication and information empowers citizens, facilitate participatory democracy, and assist in defending, advancing and deepening democracy. Free, independent and pluralistic media can only (I argue) be achieved through not only many media products but by diversity of ownership and control of media, and content of media.
Lastly Chairperson, whereas new technologies provides opportunities, the challenge we do face is the need for greater high speed internet, affordable connectivity and broadband capabilities. As part of fast tracking economic transformation, we need to prioritise rolling out infrastructure that would ensure technology is more accessible in rural and poor communities providing them with access to new media, information and basic services (education, health, etc.) and invest in e-content. Unfortunately, there is another area that remains a problem and that is the huge media literacy challenge in South Africa. Circulation figures indicate that only a small number of South Africans read newspapers, so it will be important to grow our literacy levels in the future to build an information society.
Public and community media need to position themselves creatively and innovatively, develop e-content, use the many platforms and channels that digital era provides to ensure it provides diverse content serving the needs of all citizens. Questions arise, why can't one access a daily national newspaper in a language of his/her choice, why can't one access TV services in a language of his/her choice.
Practically, let's all commit to ensuring a pluralistic and diverse media available in all our languages; to affordable access to connectivity through high speed broadband. We need to have all languages available in the mainstream daily newspapers, radio, television and internet; so we can all equally access information and participate in the economic transformation and deepen our democracy.
I would therefore end by saying: "Let us together and in partnership globally, push back the frontiers of poverty and help develop our communities using ICTs."
Let us work together to confront the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty, inequalities and information and knowledge gap in order to achieve social cohesion and indeed create a truly egalitarian, united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.
I thank you
Chief Executive Officer
Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA)
31 Princess of Wales Terrace
Parktown, Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel. +27 11 643 1125
Fax +27 11 643 1126
Contacts/e-mail address: az.gro.addm@okmul
Website: www.mdda.org.za
