ANC STATEMENT ON THE COMMENTS BY THE MINISTER OF DOC

13 October 2015

The African National Congress has noted the statement released by the Minister of the Department of Communication in relation to the outcome of the NGC directives based on the discussions of the mandates of the said department. It is unfortunate that in her statement there are a number of inaccuracies relating to matters discussed by the Communications Commission and subsequently adopted by the NGC.

We want to place on record that the issues of digital migration and SABC were discussed extensively by the Commission which resulted in the decisions that were taken.

Under acknowledgement the NGC, having noted the unfortunate failure by South Africa to migrate from analog to digital broadcasting and the terrible instability at the SABC, pointed out the need for an urgent meeting between the two Ministers (Department of Post and Telecommunications and Department of Communication) and the NEC Subcommittee for Communication to address instability within Sabc, digital migration, issues of postal services and the establishment of the Post Bank. The Subcommittee will convene these meetings as per the directive of the NGC instead of engaging through the media.

We want to assert that the responsibility to communicate ANC NEC conference, NGC and other decisions reside with the Secretary General of the ANC, Spokesperson of the ANC and Chairpersons of ANC NEC Subcommittees. It is unfortunate that Minister Muthambi despite this reality she opted again to speak on ANC decisions un-mandated and in the process she unfortunately accused the Chairperson of the Subcommittee of being a liar.

Statement issued by Jackson Mthembu, ANC national spokesperson, 13 October 2015