By OBAKENG MAJE
5 March 2026- The deputy minister in the Presidency, Kenny Morolong and delegates from the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Media Development Diversity Agency (MDDA) and Brand SA, engaged the North West Executive Council on the coordination of government communication, nation branding and community media support in the North West. Morolong said the main reason for their engagement was to socialise the provincial executive council on the government communications policy, which was recently adopted by the cabinet.
He further said the government communications policy, set out rules, procedures and processes for government communications. Morolong added that they had a quite involved discussion with the provincial executive council on how best they can improve communication at a strategic function of a fictional government.
“The province has also engaged the GCIS on its mandate and some of the communication challenges that had besieged the province for quite some time. However, we have been able to respond to them and we have identified the areas of collaboration.
“The second discussion was on MDDA and its attended mandate, which is to support small and commercial media. Our discussion is centered around the need for MDDA to continue to be consistent with its mandate to capitalise small and commercial media and we were particularly focused on the North West,” he said.
Morolong said he reminded the provincial executive council that, not so long ago, they had a workshop with MDDA and community media, which was aimed at sensitising community media about requirements for funding. He said they have received information from the MDDA regarding the number of community media projects that have been funded and are able to give a sense of where they are within the North West and which projects are potentially being able to fund.
“We have yet to formally communicate with those who have been successful on their applications. We also had a discussion with Brand SA, which is one of our entities responsible for the promotion of the nation’s brand.
“They have been able to reflect on the brand. The Brand SA has got responsibility to be a marketing agency of South Africa. It also has the responsibility to ensure that South Africa, as a brand, is admired globally,” said Morolong.
He said it also has a responsibility to make sure that South Africa is seen as a brand that is globally competitive. Morolong said they had a fruitful discussion about the mandate of these entities together with the GCIS.
“We looking forward to the future engagement. What came out of this discussion is that, we should have a provincial communicators’ forum to socialise communication on the discussion that have ensued on the concerns that have been raised by the executive council and how we have been able to go about delving into possible way and solutions to respond to some of the questions that have been raised in our discussions with the executive,” he said.
The North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi said: “Indeed as a province, we are very excited to have hosted you today from GCIS and its entities. We had a conversation and they highlighted that this is what the cabinet had reviewed regarding communications strategy.
“Now, the government at a national level is responsible to craft policies and us as provinces, our responsibilities are to implement. When these reviews are done, we take communications and put it in the strategic planning on how we communicate with our people.”
Mokgosi said there is a general belief that the government is doing a lot, but communicating less, if not at all. He said hence generally have surveys and perceptions that there is a mood of people not happy with government works.
“When we evaluate at a factual point, you will realise that the government is doing very well. Now, part of the discussion today is how do we possess communication in the three spheres of government at the centre of communicating to our people.
“The service delivery without shying away on limitations and weaknesses that the government will have. Our responsibility is to tell people what the government does. Also, it is important on how we integrate South Africa because as a province, for instance, we go abroad trying to market the province but the reality is as you market the province, the brand must be well packaged,” said Mokgosi.
He said they must ensure that the brand is well-resourced and has tools of trade. He said the province will be hosting an investment conference job summit. Mokgosi said the Brand South Africa must be able to come in and assist.
Meanwhile, the MDDA CEO, Shoeshoe Qhu said there are media houses funded in the North West and funding does not have favoritism. Qhu said there is a criterion the agency follows.
“We did come to the province and went through that process that led to the funding. In total, we have a budget of R49 million to fund community media and this is funds we transfer to community media.
“Additionally, we have non-financial support which includes capacity building initiatives to help community media and publishers to manage the resources and their projects to be sustainable,” she said.
The Guardian 