The Congress of South African Trade Unions has today, 18 January 2012, sent the following letter to Collin Matjila, Chief Executive Officer of Kopanoke Matla Investment Company (Pty) Ltd:

I am sure you are aware of the controversy surrounding the proposal by TopTV to launch three ‘adult' 24-hour TV Channels, showing pornographic films, on their network.

COSATU is totally opposed to such channels, which we believe will exploit and demean women and girls, reinforce sexist attitudes and encourage the abuse of women, which is already a massive problem.  Such programmes will contribute to a lowering of moral standards in the country and further erode the revolutionary morality of our struggle movement.

We are very concerned that, since Kopano ke Matla is a shareholder in TopTV, the federation could be seen to be condoning and indeed funding these pornographic channels, and call upon you to demand that TopTV scrap these channels, and, if they refuse, to disinvest from the company.

Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, January 18 2012

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