If you're going to sell BS dressed up as good news, you should probably try and maintain some semblance of credibility, but it appears communications minister Faith Muthambi did not get the memo.
From the beginning - when president Jacob Zuma split the former communications ministry into the new Department of Communications and the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, earlier this year - suspicions were aroused that the former would be nothing more than a propaganda-generating structure for Zuma's administration.
Confirming these suspicions were Muthambi's first public utterances as communications minister, when she stated the new DOC would not be an agent of propaganda for the state, but will aim to foster a good relationship with the media and get "the good stories that are not being told" out there.
The former Makhado municipal manager further stated: "We, as government, are readying ourselves to implement an information revolution."
Good news stories? Information revolution? We've been here before. The ANC's desperate attempts to push through the so-called Secrecy Bill, coupled with a Media Tribunal to punish wayward journalists, who dared to not report "the good news" about the state's achievements, spoke volumes about what kind of information revolution our democratic government would like to see.
Information filtering
However, punishing those who won't play ball is but one side of the coin; giving a prominent voice to those who do toe the line is the other. To this end, Muthambi announced she would busy herself with the "simplification of communication" to reach the nation, while also insisting this would not be achieved through the expansion and use of ICT, but rather through the use of newspapers.
While this could be construed as counterproductive and regressive for a country whose government is forever banging on about the digital divide - but doing little in real terms to eliminate it - it fits perfectly with the objective of information filtering.
Naturally, the flow of information is easiest to control when it is directed at those who do not have Internet access, and whose primary source of information can be regulated through the distribution of carefully selected publications that carry carefully selected 'good news'.
Again, Muthambi's statements in the early days of her ministerial deployment are revealing when she says: "I will be the happiest person if we can have a situation where every South African is informed about what government is doing. There are people out there doing good, but the story is not being told. There are people in villages with no Internet and we have areas that don't even have access to radio - we all know we still have this situation."
Yes, this marginalised section of the community also makes an ideal audience for targeted propaganda, as they can be kept in the dark and fed crap.
However, notwithstanding the existence of one or two media houses that have open links to Zuma and have openly pledged to spread the "good news" about the current administration, the largely independent media sector in SA remains problematic. Secrecy Bills and threats of imprisoning journalists can arguably bring about some degree of censorship, but it will not necessarily guarantee the dissemination of pro-government propaganda.
Not that a remedy has not already been suggested for this problem, but perhaps the structures were not in place yet to push ahead with this audacious plan. In 2011, government mouthpiece Jimmy Manyi laid out a state communications strategy - approved by Cabinet - that would ensure newspapers would reflect the state's messages as issued, or face punishment by losing out on government's considerable ad spend.
Stick and carrot
The communication plan would have seen the consolidation of the state's R1 billion advertising budget under the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), then headed up by Manyi. Furthermore, he made no bones of the fact that media which reflected the state's propaganda would get a bigger share of this pie, while those who didn't would obviously get less.
Fortunately, this plan was derailed by National Treasury, and Manyi was eventually fired as head of the GCIS, when his contract was not renewed in 2012. But not for long - while Manyi might have gone quiet for a while, taking up a senior management position at Rand Water - there clearly is a need for his special talents.
The flow of information is easiest to control when it is directed at those who do not have Internet access.
History tells us that visionaries are often ahead of their time, and perhaps Manyi's time has finally come. While it is alarming that he has quietly assumed the role of special advisor to Muthambi, in light of the communications department's role, his appointment is hardly surprising.
Not that the DOC has been particularly forthcoming about Manyi's new role, and the man himself has refused to discuss the details of his new post. Opposition politicians are worried, however, saying the position gives Manyi considerable political powers, essentially making him an extension of the minister. It is also worrisome that special advisors to ministers traditionally have sway over matters related to policy.
I suppose we have no choice but to wait and see what happens, but I think we can quite accurately guess where this is heading.
Ironically, Muthambi's predecessor, Yunus Carrim, who headed up the former DOC until this year's general elections, showed that good news could be generated through some old-fashioned hard work and by throttling back a little on serving one's self-interests.
But alas, that's not the kind of good news we are talking about now, is it?
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