ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the history of the establishment of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and the surrounding discourses, and concludes by presenting an assessment of the performance of this agency. The formation of the Media Development and Diversity Agency in South Africa should be seen in the context of the broader media and political landscape. In 1996 the South African government appointed a Communications Task Team to make recommendations to government around the transformation of the communications environment. South Africa’s regulatory landscape was a direct product of the “mobilisations and pressures” of the transition period. The MDDA was created through Parliamentary Act 14 of 2002, as one measure to address these challenges, to enable more widespread access, ownership and control of the media by previously disadvantaged groups. During this period there was much debate about the terms ‘development’ and ‘diversity’, and what this meant in terms of the mandate of the MDDA.
