DA calls on SAPS to provide protection to high risk staff at SABC

9 June 2019

The DA is calling on SAPS to immediately institute personal risk assessments on all staff members working to uncover corruption at the SABC and take steps to provide SAPS protection to high risk individuals.

This follows an alleged foiled assassination attempt targeting SABC’s internal audit executive, Thami Zikode, outside his home in Johannesburg South.

While we welcome news that suspects have been brought in for questioning, it remains clear that this is not an isolated incident. It is a coordinated effort by a corrupt network that had turned SABC into their fiefdom and now face a real possibility of being exposed.

This is not the first time that SABC staff members have been threatened and intimidated. The SABC 8 endured unrelenting threats to their emotional and physical well-being, one of whom eventually lost her life. To this day, SAPS investigations into the matter have yielded no fruit.

We simply cannot allow a repeat of this brazen lawlessness at the state broadcaster, moreso against professionals working to uncover the rot that had become endemic during Hlaudi’s disastrous tenure.

The DA looks forward to a thorough investigation of Thami Zikode’s case, including all the unsolved cases at the SABC, as a critical first step in restoring the SABC as a safe working place for all its employees.

Issued by Phumzile Van Damme, DA Shadow Minister of Communications, 9 June 2019