Google makes good on MDPMI settlement terms with nationwide vernacular training

While Marianne Erasmus, Google news partner lead for our region, tries to play this local language publisher workshop roadshow that kicked off this week in Cape Town as an inspired pilot project, it is one part of the R688-million settlement between the Competition Commission and the tech giant.

The workshop is basically to teach publishers how to use Google tools in their own vernacular language.

At the event, the vibes were immaculate. Abongile Mashele, Google lead on government affairs and public policy, code-switched between Xhosa and English, charming the room of independent publishers. “Ngikhule ngifunda uVukani,” (I grew up reading Vukani) she tells us, grounding the initiative in personal nostalgia and her “deeply personal desire to empower the production ecosystem”.

It was a good line. And this is an exciting initiative, but it is also a direct, enforceable output of the Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI). The settlement agreement earmarked R11.6-million over three years for total training support, distinct from the R38-million annual spend on the Digital News Transformation Fund.

A question of accountability

Google is framing this as a global pilot, a test case for how the search giant interacts with the media hounds in the Global South. But viewed from the cheap seats of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, it looks less like innovation and more like paying the bill.

Read more: Competition Commission report on Big Tech and media offers scant hope

The timing is spicy. The launch lands squarely in the middle of a political tussle over Big Tech’s accountability to the South African state.

Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has recently fallen foul of the portfolio committee, specifically regarding the Starlink debate, but the sentiment bleeds into every interaction with Silicon Valley.

Read more: OPINION: Mixed signals are muddying the Starlink debate waters

Shaik Imraan Subrathie, a member of the portfolio committee, told Daily Maverick about the renewed rigour to audit Big Tech. “If you have committed yourself to do X, Y and Z to operate in this country, we (the portfolio committee) want to see that delivery,” he said.

Subrathie pointed to a “gap in terms of accountability” where intentions often outpace evidence. His message is that the state is “seized with impact”. It’s not enough to tick a box saying you trained 100 people. “How have you impacted the lives of the people? We want to hear the stories.”

For the committee this is a matter of “legislative sovereignty”. While there is no formal advisory board checking for attacks on digital sovereignty, the stance is clear: multinational tech companies are welcome, provided they adhere to local frameworks.

The grand presidency plan

There is also a carrot being dangled here. The workshop takes place against the backdrop of a Presidency trying desperately to revitalise a media sector that has been decimated by the very digital disruption Google represents.

Kenny Morolong, the deputy minister in the Presidency, was on hand to offer a surprisingly nuanced view of the government’s role. While the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies handles the wires and the regulations, Morolong reminded attendees that “the Presidency is responsible for government communication” and, by extension, the health of the media landscape.

He explained that he helped establish a “steering committee on payment and digital transformation” comprising media CEOs. Their mandate? To figure out how traditional media can “work hand in glove with over-the-top services such as Facebook, Google and Amazon”.

Read more: Five key takeaways from the report into Big Tech and the SA media

Most intriguingly, Morolong didn’t shoot down the idea of tax exemptions for media houses serving the public good (which Daily Maverick CEO Styli Charalambous has long championed). “It’s a huge consideration given the challenge that the media faces,” he admitted, though with the caveat that it is a “legislative policy matter requiring public participation”.

Not getting in the way of a good story

The workshop itself is a solid idea. Local language publishers are the “heartbeat of the community”, to borrow Morolong’s parlance, and they are often left behind in the digital scramble.

If Google’s data and tools can help them demonstrate impact and commercialise their content, that’s a net positive for South African democracy.

Read more: We can save journalism in South Africa, but only if we recognise its role

But let’s not confuse a court-ordered settlement with a charitable donation. Google is here because the Competition Commission made it expensive not to be.

Following the Cape Town isiXhosa launch, the roadshow will travel across the country to deliver in-person training:

20 January: Paarl (Afrikaans)

22 January: East London (isiXhosa)

26 January: Durban (isiZulu)

29 January: Johannesburg (English)

31 January: Polokwane (Sepedi)

As Subrathie and the portfolio committee watch from the wings, the question isn’t just whether Google can train publishers, but whether Big Tech can learn to respect South African sovereignty without being dragged to the negotiation table first. DM