Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced on Friday that government is in discussions with National Treasury to fund the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) in honour of late Essop Pahad to ensure the sustainability of community media.   

She was addressing attendees of the MDDA’s twentieth-anniversary event, themed “Democracy and Diversity, Celebrating 20 Years of Access to Information and Media Freedom Through Community Media”, held at the University of South Africa.   

She said that the geographical spread of MDDA projects was aligned with the District Development Model and had been instrumental in reaching underserved regions.

“As we journey into another 20 years, part of the primary focus of the MDDA must be the sustainability of the community media sector. The MDDA must do this in honour of the erstwhile champion of media development and the late former Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad,” said Ntshavheni.

She said Pahad unapologetically championed media development and the diversification of content, ownership and control.

She added that in his memory the MDDA must ensure meaningful and profitable community media, saying that “if wishes were horses the MDDA would fund the erstwhile owners of the Agenda magazine, which is amongst the group of the first community projects that were funded by the MDDA back in 2004, to publish a commemorative application on 20 years of the MDDA and a tribute to Minister [Essop] Pahad”.

She stressed that the MDDA’s mandate and funding policy needed to be reviewed, while she questioned whether MDDA structures were powerful enough to effect meaningful change.

“As we congratulate the MDDA on this significant milestone and take our first steps to the next 20 years, it would be remiss of me not to envision an MDDA, including its shareholder [Government Communication and Information System], that will ensure the emergence of a media that represents the aspirations, thinking and values of the ‘thinking’ working  class [and] [re]present broadcasters in the community and small commercial media. This would require that at a policy level, we review the powers, mandate and structures of the MDDA to ensure an agile and responsive agency,” stressed Ntshavheni.

She said it was important to strengthen community media as, in an age dominated by global information networks, it can be easy to overlook the invaluable contribution of local news outlets and grassroots platforms, when these outlets, according to Ntshavheni, were the bedrock of informed, engaged and connected communities.