GOVERNMENT PRINTING WORKS

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GOVERNMENT PRINTING WORKS

• ROLE OF GOVERNMENT PRINTING WORKS IN LEGAL
  DEPOSIT
• BY MONTJANE MZ
• DATE 27/05/2008

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1. INTRODUCCTION

• 1.1. Developmental stages of Government Printing
  Works ever since the 18th centuary
• i. Before the Union of South Africa
• ii. During the Union of South Africa and
• iii. The Republic of South Africa
• iv. The tri-cameral Government and
• v. The current democratic South Africa.

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2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

• 2.1. Government Gazette in 1910
• i. The Government Gazette has appeared since 1910
  when the Union of South Africa was established.
• ii. It was published weekly by the Government
  Printer as the ordinary Government Gazette and
  regulations gazette.
• iii. They had the same basic numbering system
  (i.e. each issue being identified by volume
  number, an issue number, and a date (e.g. Vol.
  250, No. 10967, 09 October 1987).

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• iv. Regulations Gazette contained regulations
  which were subsidiary legislations relating to
  existing Statutes.
• v. Regulations were made by Ministers, whereas
  Statutes were made by Parliament.
• vi. The Government Gazette contained a wide
  variety of Government announcements concerning
  the activities of the Government and the
  departments, as well as legal notices from
  non-governmental sources.

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• 2.2. Impact of new Democracy, 1994
• i. Emergence of Government of National Unity
  emphasized the transformation of publishing in
  the Republic, particularly on factors such as
• The majority of the population especially rural
  and illiterate community being inaccessible to
  the most indispensable official information which
  affects their lives
• Abolishment of the former Independent States and
  Self-Governing Territories prompted the creation
  of the present 9 provinces. This led to the need
  for reconsidering the then Official Publication
  Depositories created in the previous dispensation.

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• Emphasis on the intersectoral collaraboration in
  the adoption of the Reconstruction and
  development Programme. This included all sectors
  like Department of Arts and Culture for making
  the information available to the public,
  Department of Home Affairs (through Government
  Printing Works) for printing information that
  should be made available to the public,
  Department of Education for implementation of
  adult basic calculation programme to improve the
  literacy level.

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• ii. Dissemination of information to the grassroot
  communities in a form of broachers, booklets,
  etc.
• iii. Web to facilitate the dissemination of
  information such as through the electronic media
  that can be fed into the internet system.

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3. THE ROLE PLAYED BY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING
WORKS

• 3.1.The discussion will be restricted to the
  following roles
• How official publishing persisted in accessing
  official information to the public at large.
• Co-ordination of official publishing amongst the
  official publishers
• The procedure in official depositing.

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• 3.2. Just before 1994 Government Printing Works
  (GPW) was established as a central National
  Printing Works responsible for publishing of
  official publications and supplying of printing
  matter and stationery requirements to Central
  Government and four provincial Administrations in
  terms of Treasury Instruction IT.14.5.

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• 3.3. Former Independent States and Self-Governing
  Territories had their own Tender Boards which
  formulated their own policies pertaining to
  printing and publishing.
• 3.4. Official Publications Depositories (OPDs)
  We had the following five OPDs
• The Bloemfontein Public Library
• The Natal Society Library
• The South African Library
• The State Library and

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• The Library of Parliament.
• NB. OPDs were established as an integral part of
  the existing legal Deposit Libraries.

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4. CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS

• 4.1. GPW is still playing the same role such as
  the responsibility of printing and publishing of
  official publications on behalf of the central
  Government Departments and Provincial
  Administrations subject to the Treasury
  Instruction IT14.5.of the same
• 4.2. In view of the repercussions identified from
  the previous dispensation progress was made in
  rationalisation process to eradicate the
  uneconomic set-up which had some duplicated
  services.

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• 4.3. On the strength of the Cabinet and
  Inter-Governmental forum decisions, follow-up
  discussions were held with most Provincial
  authorities and resolved by the charging the GPW
  with the main role of high volume printing.
• 4.4. Private printers were to supply the
  departments with urgent and low volume printing.

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• 4.5. How publications are deposited by the
  Government Printing Works
• One week of each publication is submitted to each
  of the current five OPDs including the
  Constitutional Court
• Additional one copy of the publication is being
  sent to the Library of Congress in Washington
  D.C. and Dag Hammershold Library at the United
  Nations in New York subject to the Treaty signed
  in 1949.
• Information provided all publications published
  by the GPW.

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• 4.6. The cost of the deposit
• Packaging and postage costs are born by the GPW.
• Government Gazette printing costs is carried the
  GPW.
• Other publications printing costs are carried by
  the relevant departments.

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5. Allocation of identification numbers

• 5.1. GPW also plays a role of allocating the
  following identification numbers on the published
  official publications
• ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
• RP (National/Central Departments Annual Reports
  Number)
• PR (Provincial Departments Annual Reports
  Number).

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• 5.2. GPW obtain a group of International Standard
  Book Numbers from the National Library of South
  Africa for allocation to the newly published
  publications during the year.
• 5.3. RP and PR numbers are demanded by the
  Auditor-Generals office for reference purposes
  and they are controlled allocated on the national
  and provincial Departments annual reports by the
  GPW.

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• 5.4. Challenges on the allocation of
  identification reference numbers.
• Some of the publications are published by various
  Government organs without these identification
  reference numbers.
• This is caused by, amongst others, the emphasis
  of the utilisation of the limited resources
  cost-effectively in the Public Finance Management
  Act, Act No.1 of 1999 and Supply Chain Management
  Policy Framework of 2003.

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6. SUMMARY

• 6.1. In the light of current initiatives of
  making official information more readily
  available to the general public it is proposed
  that at least one OPD be established even in each
  local government.
• 6.2. This will ensure that OPD concept supports
  grassroots democracy by making available
  documents emanating from national, provincial and
  local governments and improves popular access to
  the publications of government funded
  institutions such as Research Councils and
  Universities.

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• 6.3. All Government institutions should be urged
  to
• Comply with the requirements of the Official
  Publications Deposit and
• Ensure that the appropriate identification
  numbers such as ISBN, RP or PR are allocated to
  all official publications

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THANK YOU!!

• QUESTIONS?