Act No. 4, 1999 BROADCASTING ACT, 1999 (l) establish a strong and committed public broadcasting service which will service the needs of all South African society; (m) ensure that the commercial and community licences, viewed collectively, are controlled by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of communities in South Africa; (n) ensure that broadcasting services are effectively controlled by South Africans; (o) integrate multi-channel distribution systems into the broadcasting framework; (p) provide access to signal distribution services for content providers; (q) provide access to signal distribution services for broadcast content receivers; (r) encourage the development of local programming content CHAPTER II SOUTH AFRICAN BROADCASTING SYSTEM This Chapter is of central significance to the Act, as it lays the basis that the South African broadcasting system is owned and controlled by South Africans. The National Government, acting through the Minister, is responsible for the achievement of this purpose and the constitutional mandate of broadcasting policy development. Being empowered to act on behalf of the nation, the Minister has the ultimate responsibility to fulfil certain obligations relating to use, protection and access to broadcasting resources. South African broadcasting system 3. (1) The South African broadcasting system(a) serves to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of South Africa; (b) operates in the public interest and strengthens the spiritual and moral fibre of society; (c) ensures that the broadcasting system is controlled by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of communities in South Africa and within each element promotes ownership, control and management of broadcasting services by persons from historically disadvantaged groups; (d) encourages fair competition in the provision of programmes and services (2) Subject to subsection (l), the Minister is ultimately responsible to develop policy that is required from time to time. (3) Public and commercial broadcasting services must comply with international technical standards and the broadcasting system must be readily adaptable to scientific and technological advances. (4) The broadcasting system, as a whole, must provide educational programming, and where such programming is provided by a dedicated education service, must be extended throughout the Republic within the financial resources. (5) The programming provided by the South African broadcasting system must (a) be varied and comprehensive, providing a balance of information, education and entertainment meeting the broadcasting needs of the entire South African population in terms of age, race, gender, religion, interests and backgrounds; [Paragraph (a) substituted by Section 3(a) of Act No. 64 of 2002]