Conversations with leaders
department that continues to evolve
Former GCIS leaders reflect on how the department has progressed over the past 20 years
The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) has evolved significantly over the years, having to adapt, refocus and innovate to meet the communication needs of the state. A number of former senior managers were crucial in this process by using their skills to shape the department.
PSM spoke to some of these pioneers about the journey GCIS has travelled and what it needs to do to improve.
GCIS’s first Deputy CEO
Yacoob Abba Omar said the Comtask 2000 Report formed the foundation of everything that happened to make the agency the communications machinery it is today.
Commissioned by the then Deputy President
Thabo Mbeki in January
1996, a panel of experts known as the "Task Group" produced the Comtask report after eight months of research and consultation with government and international institutions.
The Task Group found that, “Overall, Government lacks central coordination in messaging, adequate planning of information campaigns, and communications has a low priority as reflected in its budgets and the status of communicators”.
In its report, which became known as "The Comtask 2000 Report", the group made 83 recommendations.
These focused on a communications system that would ensure that information on government policy and programmes would be accessible to the majority of South Africans in order to improve their lives.
The report favoured the creation of a new government communication and information system to be centred around three pillars – Media Liaison, the Communication Service Agency and Provincial Liaison.
Merging the old and new
Abba, who is now the Head of Strategy and Communications at the Banking Association of South Africa, said because he was among the first managers to join GCIS, he had to sit on almost every interview panel to appoint chief directors. He added that a decision was taken to retain staff from the old SA Communications Service which transformed into GCIS.
“Those that remained from the old machinery were actually not the ideologues. A lot of the ideologues had left. So these were more professional; they were committed to doing a good job and actually were quite happy with with the transition and were pleased
that 1994 had happened,” Abba recalled.
He added that since GCIS was a new organisation and had limited resources, it was constantly motivating for more in terms of budget allocations and human resources.
According to Abba, one of the major projects for the GCIS was the development and launch of the central government portal.
“This was such a big thing when we launched www.gov.za. We launched it when Thabo
Mbeki was still the Deputy President and I insisted that he be there because he was paying a lot of attention to the potential of the information economy and information communication technology,” he said.
Looking to the future,
Omar said GCIS needs to revisit the Comtask Report and what it sought to achieve. He added that there was a need for government communicators to be taken more seriously.
“There has been a tendency to ignore the advice that communicators provide and I have often said that communicators must learn to have a thick skin … they need to be prepared to tell the truth to the principals,” he said.
Abba added that there has been a juniorisation of government communications as a whole and that it is important for more emphasis to be placed on getting a permanent head of GCIS.
Importance of the Cabinet spokesperson
Business Leadership SA Communications Director Themba Maseko also highlighted the importance of communicators, saying he would like to see GCIS go back to the days when the CEO also served as a Cabinet spokesperson.
A former GCIS CEO and Cabinet spokesperson himself, Maseko said it would be a good idea to go back to the old system.
“A Minister can do a press conference but will not be available to communicate with the media. In a press conference, you do a briefing but you have to follow it up with interviews. If the media did not understand what you were talking about, you must still be available. So whilst there is merit in getting a politician to be a spokesperson, I think there is still some scope to get a civil servant to communicate. Ensure messages are professional and do not appear to be party political,” he suggested.
Maseko also highlighted areas in which he believes GCIS can do better.
“I think the system has been weakened.The fact that you don’t have a permanent head for such a long time, I think the voice of government has declined quite substantially, the public is not well-informed,” he said.
Maseko said more needs to be done to bolster its capacity to intervene where relations between communicators and the media appear to be strained. He said his recent interactions with colleagues in the media space have led him to believe that relations between the media and government communicators are not as healthy as they used to be.This, he said, appears to