Snuki Zikalala and Hlaudi Motsoeneng created cultural malaise at the SABC, writes Eusebius McKaiser.
History contains important dark truths that we stupidly forget to revisit. The other day, by way of example, I found myself re-reading the Sisulu Commission of Inquiry’s re-port into blacklistings at the SABC in 2006.
That report makes for chilling reading. If you substitute “Snuki Zikalala” for “Hlaudi Motsoeneng”, it is clear that history is repeating itself at the SABC in terms of the abuse of this crucial public institution for nefarious purposes.
Zikalala back then, you might recall, saw himself as the owner of the SABC and willy-nilly dictated which voices should be allowed on the airwaves. He was scared of the impact that criticism of then president Thabo Mbeki might have on both the ANC and the president itself. So integrity was traded for keeping political chums happy.
This is no different from the reign of terror under the current chief operating officer (COO), Motsoeneng, who, despite being declared unfit to govern by the Public Protector and a court of law due to unethical and ruinous management behaviour, has closed down the space for journalists to do an honest day’s work.
But the lessons from the Zikalala days must be recalled and re-learnt. Firstly, there is now a structural and cultural problem inside the SABC that is bigger than any one of the thugs mismanaging the place. If Motsoeneng left tomorrow, the SABC would still be a mess.
Just as the departure of Zikalala evidently didn't lead to an SABC that executes its public broadcasting mandate faithfully. Bad habits, like an upwards-referral system that compels producers and even executive producers to clear every single decision about stories, angles and guests with management, have become the norm.
This has resulted in a toxic combination of self-censorship and a chilling effect on journalists who choose to stay out of management trouble, because suspension letters are issued more frequently than overzealous traffic cops dishing these out on our roads for actual unlawful behaviour.
The COO of the SABC also has magically become editor-in-chief. How on earth can that be right? Why usurp the authority of news editors and even the group chief executive officer? These are institutional weaknesses that would require more than the removal of Motsoeneng to fix.
Complete organisational redesign is required, as well as the habituation of new ways of behaving at work.
Just yesterday, on Meet The Media With Eusebius McKaiser, the now former acting group CEO of the SABC, Jimi Matthews, admitted to how a “corrosive atmosphere” at the SABC has resulted in odious habits, like he himself deciding to starve the EFF of news coverage.
He also admitted that Motsoeneng leaving the SABC would be good for the SABC. These two admissions show how toxic corporate cultures can choke men and women who previously were upstanding professionals in our media.
Matthews of course still needs to tell us much more detail about his own complicity, if his resignation letter is to have moral weight. What is clear, however, is that Matthews, who is well respected by many journalists and media professionals who have known him for decades, simply chose to be a pawn of political factions outside the SABC and those seconded to the SABC. This is so by Matthews’s own admission.
How harshly each one of us judges Matthews is a matter of personal choice. But it can't be doubted that his moral wrestling is further evidence of a deeper cultural malaise inside the SABC.
And so the pressure by civil society to get Motsoeneng removed as COO must not end there. Just as Zikalala could eventually become Motsoeneng, so Motsoeneng could morph into some new pawn of political factions with a different name, Joe Soap.
You only protect institutions, whether public or private, by building the right safeguards into the design of the institutions. You must assume human beings aren’t perfect and capable of moral waywardness, and then review existing structures, norms, editorial policies, codes of conduct and other practices to reduce future pillaging of the institution.
None of this, by the way, means that commercial media is perfect. The profit motive can have as poisonous an effect on journalists working at commercial media houses as political influences can have on the SABC.
But it is bizarre logic to assert that one should focus only on the SABC once commercial media houses are perfectly in order. For one, there is a crucial difference between a private company answerable to its shareholders and owners, and a public institution which belongs to you and me.
For another, the public broadcaster plays a uniquely crucial role in a deliberative democracy. Most South Africans access news and information through the SABC. This fact alone means that the SABC’s malfunctioning is a real threat to a working democracy in which people make informed decisions about their political preferences.
Only an anti-democrat will not lose sleep over the shenanigans at the SABC.
* Eusebius McKaiser is the best-selling author of A Bantu In My Bathroom and Could I Vote DA? A Voter’s Dilemma. His new book - Run, Racist, Run: Journeys Into The Heart Of Racism - is now available nationwide, and online through Amazon.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
THE STAR