DA will seek High Court review of ICASA CCC decision

25 April 2014

The Democratic Alliance will seek a High Court review of the ICASA Compliance and Complaints Committee's decision to censor our Ayisafani televison commerical.

We believe that the CCC has presented a fundamentally biased and incorrect decision that amounts to censorship.

It is clear their decision is nothing but an attempt to disrupt the DA's election campaign to protect the ANC. 

The rise in police brutality is not news to South Africans. We have been exposed to the regular images of police brutality, images far worse than anything depicted in the Ayisafani commericial.

Has this incited people to violence against the police? No. Quite the opposite: if we don't talk about what is really happening in our country the same injustices will be inflicted on us over and over again. 

ICASA is asking South Africans to forget that on national TV news we saw the police killing Marikana miners and Andries Tatane, among many others. 

We have also seen police violence against ordinary citizens, most recently in Bekkersdal where rubber bullets were fired on unarmed residents at close range.

The DA has done nothing but state the facts in our Ayisafani commericial: we have "a police force that is killing our people".

What ICASA has said today is we can't tell the truth about police brutality, even when South Africans are killed in front of our eyes.

Under Zuma's ANC we have witnessed the militarization of the police. We have witnessed reckless policy positions like "shoot to kill". We cannot erase these statements and these images from our minds.

The DA will not allow freedom of speech to be trampled on by bodies like ICASA who should be acting independently to protect freedom of speech.

It is unfortunate that this matter must now go to the courts for review but it is a necessary step to protect freedom speech, constitutionalism and free elections in South Africa.

Statement issued by DA leader, Helen Zille, April 25 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter