‘Rudderless’ GCIS gets blame for GNU PR failures

Lack of leadership at the Government Communication & Information System (GCIS), which has been without a permanent CEO and other senior managers for almost a decade, is at the heart of a communications crisis plaguing the government of national unity.

Sources in the ANC and the GNU told the Sunday Times this week that problems at the GCIS were behind embarrassing episodes of mixed messaging by cabinet ministers and  the Presidency.

The DA ministers in the GNU have recently been in public spats with the Presidency over their achievements in their first 100 days in government, while ANC ministers have grumbled about being outshone by the DA’s publicity efforts.

The GCIS is constitutionally tasked with providing strategic leadership and co-ordination in the dissemination of state information to ensure public access to it.

But this week, government officials and politicians indicated that the formation of the GNU has laid bare the abysmal performance of the GCIS, which they blamed on a leadership vacuum.

The service has been without a permanent CEO since 2012 when Mzwanele Manyi left. His successor, Phumla Williams, acted as CEO for eight years before being appointed full-time in 2020, only to go into retirement two years later.

The post has yet to be filled, compounding the vacancies in other senior positions tasked with co-ordinating public messaging across all departments.

Khusela Diko

It was also established this week that earlier this year the government had been on the brink of naming former Presidency spokesperson Khusela Diko as GCIS chief but the process had to be restarted when she became an MP after the May elections.

Insiders said Diko had been reluctant about reporting to minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, under whose control the GCIS falls, as they  do not see eye-to-eye.

It is understood that Diko had the support of senior ANC leaders as she is a respected member of its national executive committee and has served as the party’s national communications manager.

“With GCIS you can’t put just anyone there. It’s the most senior communicator in government,” said an insider. “I don’t think it’s one of those positions where you can go and get a private sector marketer and say ‘come lead the GCIS’.”

The source said Diko would have been a good choice “because also you need someone who is senior enough in the organisation to be able to direct the ministers”.

“You have directors-general that the ministers don’t take seriously, they don’t have any access to them so they can’t call and say, ‘minister, this and that’. You really need to be able to effectively utilise the position.”

Other sources said the matter has been the subject of urgent discussion at numerous meetings of the NEC, including in the run-up to the May elections when some accused the GCIS of failing to communicate the government’s achievements to the electorate.

“In the NEC this thing has been raised sharply, not once or twice but in at least three NEC meetings. Even before we went to elections, we kept saying ‘how on earth do we go to elections without a functional GCIS’,” said an NEC member. “So, for the ANC it has been a major issue and it’s a very sore point for a lot of people.”

Some DA leaders have taken a political posture that under the GNU they will claim all successes and seek to distort the previous administration’s record. That’s not a communication issue, that’s a political decision they have taken as part of their political strategy

—  Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya

But other well-placed officials in the higher echelons of government argued that the real issue was competition between the DA and the ANC.

“It’s not a communication crisis, it’s competition between the parties. Yes, it does look like a crisis but it’s mainly competition,” said one source.

“We must just strengthen protocols on communication because in the GNU we are not in competition. So not at all, it’s not something we are worried about. Remember we are all starting out, it will die down soon.”

Others in the ANC and the government pointed fingers at Ntshavheni, saying she had been tardy in dealing with the appointment process. But Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya dismissed this criticism, saying the GCIS leadership issue predated her appointment.

“When she resumed the process of finding a suitable candidate, that process could not be completed for two reasons: one, they could not find a suitable candidate so they had to go back to the drawing board, secondly, by the time they were resuming the process we were edging closer to the elections and the president had instructed that appointments at DG level be paused until after the elections,” he said.

“One will concede and admit it’s not ideal that GCIS still does not have a permanent head. However recent public disagreements between some DA leaders and senior government officials cannot be attributed to GCIS.

“Some DA leaders have taken a political posture that under the GNU they will claim all successes and seek to distort the previous administration’s record. That’s not a communication issue, that’s a political decision they have taken as part of their political strategy.

“That some of us have decided to step up and clarify those distortions is not a reflection of a communication problem in government,” Magwenya said.

Diko declined to comment on whether she had been in line to head the GCIS before the election.

But, speaking as chair of parliament’s communications portfolio committee, which oversees the GCIS, Diko said the leadership vacuum was worrisome.

“The delay in the appointment of a DG is of great concern to the functioning of the government communications system as a whole. We’ve raised this matter on numerous occasions with the department. We trust that they are working on it because we need to see better co-ordination and alignment of government messaging in line with their mandate,” said Diko.

“The disjuncture of messaging and communication, including what is becoming public spats between the departments, like we have seen with the Presidency and home affairs, also points to a lack of a central co-ordination of government messaging,” she said.

“Once you have intra-government communication that is at odds, that is when GCIS is supposed to rise and give direction to all departments because the DG of GCIS is the official cabinet and government spokesperson.”

An insider said: “GCIS has been in this state for far too long. The ANC doesn’t seem to respect the entity and doesn’t seem to understand the importance of that role. That is why Phumla was there in an acting capacity for years and that is why we will continue without a DG for the foreseeable future.” 

In January, the ANC asked its deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane to work with Ntshavheni and deputy president Paul Mashatile, the leader of government business, to appoint a DG for the GCIS within three months. But the post was still vacant when the elections were held.

Nomonde Mnukwa, GCIS head of corporate services, is its latest acting head.

“Nomonde was hired as deputy DG corporate services, she is not a communicator,” a source said. “The role Vincent [Magwenya] has been playing should be the role of the DG. Vincent is doing it because there is no-one speaking on behalf of the government. That is why it is a free-for-all because there is no government spokesperson. Khumbudzo, with all her strengths, is not a communicator and this is evident when she delivers cabinet decisions.”

Another ANC leader said Mashatile has now been tasked to oversee the matter.

Mnukwa denied the GCIS was in a state of paralysis. “The GCIS does provide guidance to ministers through their media liaison officers. Ministers are occupying higher levels than administrators and therefore guidance and advice is how far the GCIS can go,” she said.