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More Communication needed (September 2011)





A lot have been said about government’s lack of effective communication with the country’s citizens.  Some of the service delivery protests are blamed on lack of effective communication by the government to the public. You also listen to people on the street discussing government and its programmes and you realize that there is a serious need for government to communicate directly.

This lack of effective communication is pervasive and it affects all levels of government.  The 2009 State of Local Government Report identified lack of communications as part of the huge challenges that are faced by municipalities.  The Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) was formed as a response to, amongt others, government's haphazard and ineffective way of communicating.

In light of the above I find myself puzzled by the outcry against a government newspaper as envisaged by GCIS’ Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jimmy Manyi.   Some see this as wanting to compete with the commercial media.  Others went as far as calling this unconstitutional and unethical.   A predominant line of thinking seem to be that
the government must just perform and the independent media report about its performance.  They view a government newspaper as an attempt by government to report on itself.

 What these critics seem to miss is that communication is much more than media relations.  Press releases can be sent to media houses and press conferences held and yet more still have to be done.  Nothing precludes any structure from communicating its own message. Government can not rely solely on the commercial media to pass its message to the citizens. Although government communicators and the commercial media share an audience they have different interests.  The Media is mainly driven by commercial interests that are not supposed to be the hallmark of government communications.  The media is, at best, a partner in carrying one’s message but is not responsible for it.  Communicating directly with your stakeholders allow you the freedom to determine the message, angle and the reach of your communication.  To leave this entirely on the hands of others is being irresponsible.  My current employer, a Municipality, produces and distributes a monthly newsletter to its ratepayers.

Another thing that is not being considered, by the alarmists, is that the government already has a bi-monthly magazine called Vuk’uzenzele with a suspect distribution network. I am saying suspect because not many people can claim to have received a copy.  I think this is what Mr. Manyi wants to improve.   He wants to change it into a monthly newspaper and I hope he will think critically about how to get it into our houses.  Good publications are sometimes failed by a lack of well thought-out distribution channels.

When I started working as a Communications Manager at the Cape Winelands District Municipality there was a glossy magazine that was supposed to go out quarterly.  I had to transform it into a format that we would be able to issue regularly and distribute as widely as possible.  This led to the birth of what is now known as “The Grapevine” that is distributed throughout the Boland. It is no longer in a magazine format but a newsletter that went out monthly, when I was still there.
I think this is what GCIS is attempting to do and unfortunately the hatred for its CEO blinds people to this.  I have personal views on the suitability of the CEO as a Chief Government spokesperson as I think he tend to become part of the news a lot.  That is bad in communications and in trying to avoid it he compromises the effectives of the Black Management Forum, of which he is a president.  That aside, I am not convinced that he is doing anything sinister by improving one of his agency’s communication products.    He also state that this publication will be in all languages.  No commercial media house is prepared to venture into a number of our official languages and thus they can not assist government with this.  We should stand up and applaud government for ensuring that people get to read about what is going on in their country in their own languages.   Come on GCIS, we are waiting for the paper so that my mother can read in isi-Xhosa the reasons her country voted in favour of resolution 1973 on Libya.

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