EFF STATEMENT ON SABC AND ITS CONTINUED CAPTURE BY THE GUPTAS

18 May 2017

The SABC remains in a weak position without any sign of its rescue despite the appointment of the interior board. Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who is essentially a Gupta puppet, remains in control of major decisions at the SABC through those who occupy the management positions like the acting Group CEO Tseliso Ralitabo and, COO and CFO.

It is a fact that these individuals who occupy these positions on acting capacity owe their allegiance to Hlaudi Motsoeneng. The SABC inquiry established that Tseliso Ralitabo was hand-picked by Hlaudi Motsoeneng in what was suspected to be an irregular appointment. It is shocking that this new board would endorse his appointment to such a key position when the task at hand is to rescue the SABC from the mayhem caused by Motsoeneng and Minister Muthambi.

The interim board ought to know that there is no saving the SABC by recycling the same people that served in the same bureaucratic team with Hlaudi Motsoeneng. Until they are able to get men and women of integrity outside the miasma of Motsoeneng's management team, the SABC remains on its knees.

Furthermore, the grip of Motsoeneng is clear, from the replacement of Sophie Mokoena with Mzwandile Mbeje as head of politics. This is the same man who during the 2014 general elections presided over the suppression of the EFF on SABC news as established by the SABC enquirer. Mzwandile Mbeje is also a presidential correspondent with very close proximity to Mr. Zuma. It is impossible that he could ever be objective, let alone on opposition parties.

What takes the cake is the continued illegitimate contract with a Gupta owned news paper. The SABC still shares a platform with the The New Age through The New Age Breakfast program that does nothing but legitimize a kleptocratic propaganda paper.

The EFF is convinced that the work of building an SABC with integrity and that can regain public trust starts with undoing these decisions; ending the contracts with the Guptas on New Age Breakfast and appointing a different journalist into head of politics than Mzwandile Mbeje who suppressed other views and continues to be presidential correspondent to Jacob Zuma. Above all, only a CEO and CFO from outside the kleptocratic circle of the Guptas across government and its entities can set SABC on a good path. 

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 18 May 2017