According to Sanef, this is the first time that an exhaustive study of the state of transformation in the print and related digital media industries has been undertaken, and says that thanks to the task team led by Nkwenke Nkomo and his commissioners and managed by Mathatha Tsedu and his team at the secretariat, "for the first time, we have a good picture of transformation across the value chain as measured by the employment equity and black economic empowerment laws of our country".
Sanef says that in some measures, for example, in skills development and preferential procurement, the print and related digital industries have put their shoulders to the grindstone and worked and the industry is doing well. But the report suggests more work needs to be done to transform the ownership landscape - a challenge we hope members of PDMSA will tackle head-on.
Sanef says there is notable change in the structure of equity in SA's newsrooms. "As senior managers in our industries we will continue to do all possible to ensure transformation in the areas in which we have control such as training, hiring and promotion of editorial staff," says Sanef.
In addition, Sanef says it "is excited that the task team has been future-focused as it trained its telescope on digital media, the great hope for access to free and diverse media for all our country's people. We support the task team's call for rapid digital migration to speed up a broadband revolution. From there will flow an information revolution.
"As Sanef, we believe the media industry must lead change and be ahead of the curve. This is because we are industry styled as a fourth estate and we enjoy constitutional protection. We have a higher responsibility to be an exemplar of transformation."
