Statement on the developments at the SABC

The SACP is deeply concerned about numerous media reports which indicate that the SABC, our public broadcaster, is in governance and administrative disarray, and that board members who are seen to be closely associated with the ANC are facing a purge, while board meetings degenerate and collapse (see report).

According to the reports, the removal of board member Ms Hope Zinde led to other board members walking out of the meeting at which the decision was taken. The Communist Party is particularly concerned over the allegation that Zinde was removed from the board for opposing the sale of SABC archives to the private monopoly pay television company, MultiChoice.

The SACP wishes to place it on record that we are strongly opposed to the privatisation of the SABC archives as these are a national resource that must be kept in public hands. We are equally concerned about the (not so transparent) collusion of the SABC with MultiChoice, in a manner that is strengthening the monopoly hold by Multi-Choice on the private Pay TV market.

The SACP calls for the agreements between the SABC and MultiChoice to be made public. We also call upon the Competition Commission to investigate the monopoly hold of MultiChoice on the Pay TV market.

The SACP is also calling upon the Communications Minister and Parliamentary Communications Portfolio Committee to intervene and investigate all allegations relating to the governance and operational challenges at the SABC. This must include the status of the SABC archives. The ongoing instability at the SABC has been going on for too long, and it is time that decisive interventions are made to stop this 'Soap Opera'.

The privatisation of any part of our national heritage can only be seen as a form of privatising our own history. With this in mind we are also calling on the Department of Arts and Culture to take an active interest on the custodianship of the SABC archives.

If it is true that these archives have been privatised, this must be immediately reversed and the archives restored to the ownership of the nation. If, on the other hand, it is established that the archives have only been licensed and not sold, then the processes followed, and the terms of that agreement, including whether the SABC has received value for money, must be investigated.

Statement issued by the SACP, March 17 2015

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