SABC Censorship: DA writes to Parliament for Unusual Meeting of Communications Committee

30 June 2016

The DA has written to the ANC Chief Whip, Jackson Mthembu, requesting an Unusual Meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Communications in terms of National Assembly (NA) Rule 223 to discuss the deeply concerning machinations at the SABC that have now gone too far. Parliament cannot ignore the blantent chilling of freedom of expression and the press at the public broadcaster. 

The DA notes Mr Mthembu’s response to our request and its referral to the House Chairperson on Committees and Oversight, Cedric Frolick, for his consideration. We implore Mr Frolick to handle this matter expeditiously appreciating the recent developments at the SABC.

This comes after it has just been reported that the three senior journalists who wrote a letter to SABC Chief Operating Officer (COO), Hlaudi Motsoeneng, expressing their discomfort with the latest editorial decisions at the SABC have been charged with "liaising with the media" without authorisation from their bosses.

Special Assignment Executive Producer, Busisiwe Ntuli, SAfm Current Affairs Executive Producer, Krivani Pillay, and Senior Investigative Journalist, Jacques Steenkamp, have been become the latest targets of Motsoeneng's hit-list.

For too long Parliament has sat on the side-lines while Mr Motsoeneng and his cohort at the SABC capture the public broadcaster for narrow political interests. 

In the past few months, the SABC has been engaged in practices which can only be described as censorship, including:

- The decision to stop “The Editors” - a very popular programme on SAFMon Sunday mornings where the political events of the week are critically analysed, debated and discussed by newspaper journalists and editors.

- The attempted banning of call-ins;

- The cancelation of Vuyo Mvoko’s talk show;

- Banning of footage of violent protests;

- Censorship of DA adverts;

- The canning of “Komentaar” on RSG; 

- A ban on negative stories about President Zuma;

- The suspension of several journalists for covering a protest by the Right2Know campaign outside the SABC office;

- The offering of a R100 000 reward by the SABC to information on journalists who have leaked information.

Added to this is the recent resignation of the SABC’s Acting Group CEO, Jimmi Matthews, who cited the “corrosive atmosphere [that] has impacted negatively on my [his] moral judgement” in an effort to ensure that the public broadcaster gives effect to its statutory obligation to act in the public interest and to report the news freely and fairly without fear, favour or prejudice. 

 The DA will not relent in calling for Motsoeneng to be fired at once, as we believe that the erosion of the SABC is as a result of his attempt at turning the public broadcaster into an instrument of propaganda for the ruling party in a flagrant attempt to protect the ANC from scrutiny and its abysmal service delivery record to date.

It must be remembered that the SABC’s CEO, Frans Matlala, was in November last year baselessly suspended for acting in a manner too independent for Mr Motsoeneng and his protector in the Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi.

The Portfolio Committee should not permit this "corrosive atmosphere" to persist; Mr Motsoeneng must be fired for irregular conduct that seeks to tarnish our hard-won democracy. 

The DA will not rest until Mr Motsoeneng is stripped of his position and we can start rebuilding a public broadcaster that honours the constitutional imperatives on which it is founded by operating in the public interest.

Issued by Phumzile Van Damme, DA Shadow Minister of Communications, 30 June 2016