History
The road
to the Government Communications and Information System GCIS
Launch of
GCIS
The birth of
GCIS can be traced to the day when Dr Essop Pahad, then Deputy Minister
in the Office of the Deputy President, took the floor in Parliament
for the Communication Budget Vote and formally declared the books
of GCIS open.
The GCIS' official
launch on 18 May 1998, during the Budget Vote of its predecessor,
the South African Communication Service (SACS), heralded the culmination
of a process initiated in 1995 by the then Deputy President, Thabo
Mbeki, when he appointed a task team (Comtask) to investigate government
communication.
Comtask
investigation
The consultations
by the Comtask Team involved a large number of institutions of civil
society as well as individuals from academia, media and the advertising
world. After a lengthy investigation, Comtask's final report was
submitted to Mr Mbeki in December 1996. An Implementation Committee
(IC) was set up, one of its task being to oversee the transformation
of the SACS into a government communication and information system.
In a Cabinet memorandum adopted on 8 October 1997, the IC proposed
the development of a professional and effective corps of government
communicators who would professionalise and streamline government
communication. This would be done through:
- the establishment
of the GCIS Secretariat to plan and co-ordinate government communication
and information in close collaboration with the Cabinet and Presidency.
- the transformation
of the existing SACS to fulfil the requirements of the new constitutional
framework.
- the restructuring
of the existing communication arrangements in Ministries and departments.
Ministries would now take direct responsibility for the communication
function in their respective departments.
GCIS
mandate
This broad-based
approach has helped strengthen the GCIS mandate to communicate on
behalf of government. This mandate is primarily drawn from Section
16 (outside link) of the Bill
of Rights (outside link), as contained
in the Constitution
(outside link), and which guarantees citizens
freedom of speech. The consequence of this is their right not only
to receive information about government, but also to communicate
their views and activities. At the first Government Communicators'
Consultative Conference, held in May 1998, Dr Pahad, explained it
as follows:
'Our task,
hand in hand with partners in the communication
industry including the media, is to ensure that this right is
indeed
realised in practical life. It is to see to it that all South
Africans
receive comment and information that enable them to make
rational choices about their lives. It is to see to it that they
themselves can pass on information and views about their
activities as they change their lives for the better. They have
got the right to now and to be heard'
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