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Reports today indicate that Jimmy Manyi is attempting to centralize all government spending on advertising under his control at the Government Communication and Information Services (GCIS).

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Parliament will be submitting a series of parliamentary questions to ask the Minister in the Presidency, Collins Chabane, whether:
The Presidency intends to centralize all advertising expenditure under the GCIS;
there will be any oversight mechanisms put in place to allow members of Parliament to interrogate spending by the GCIS;
any formal rules and regulations will be put in place to ensure that the government advertising budget is not abused for party-political purposes.
These reports are deeply troubling for several reasons.

Firstly, Mr Manyi has been quoted in the past as saying that he would use advertising revenue to reward those newspapers that report favourably on government activities, and punish those newspapers that do not. If all advertising resources across government are centralized in Mr Manyi’s hands, it will significantly strengthen his ability to bully those media outlets he perceives not to be sympathetic to his agenda.

Secondly, Mr Manyi’s history of inappropriate behaviour should disqualify him from ever controlling such a significant budget. In June 2010, Mr Manyi was suspended from his position as Director-General in the Department of Labour following a complaint that he had used an official meeting to promote his private interests.

Thirdly, Mr Manyi has consistently positioned himself to try to manipulate the message the media puts out. His latest move instructing government departments to give non-answers to pressing DA questions in Parliament underlines to what extent he is willing to use shady tactics to control what the media reports on. Giving Mr Manyi more resources will only strengthen his ability to manipulate the media.

Fourthly, community media outlets have reportedly complained that Mr Manyi and the GCIS ignore them and instead favour costly mainstream media outlets. Community media outlets are vital to reaching large sections of especially the rural population. Favouring mainstream media therefore excludes rural people from receiving government information. Mr Manyi should not be given more resources to perpetuate such a skewed approach.

Finally, Mr Manyi and the GCIS only report to the Presidency, and not to Parliament. This would therefore represent a de facto side step of Parliamentary accountability on advertising expenses. Parliament currently has limited scope to conduct oversight over the activities of the Presidency. Placing all advertising expenses under Mr Manyi at the Presidency would therefore create a dangerous, low-accountability environment with numerous opportunities for inappropriate behaviour.

Government communication should be about providing non-partisan information to as many people as possible, and not about serving party-political purposes, as Mr Manyi regularly does. This latest move to centralize more power in the GCIS is little more than an attempt to strengthen Jimmy Manyi’s propaganda machine and to shield government’s advertising expenditure from public scrutiny.