Johannesburg - The SA Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC) board and Communications Minister Faith Muthambi have been complacent and have allowed the public broadcaster to be ran into a “state of decay” media and broadcast activist Sekoetlane Phamodi said on Monday.
“The problems with the SABC are not solely linked with [COO] Mr [Hlaudi] Motsoeneng, there are bigger questions as to how our public media institutions are run,” Phamodi as he addressed reporters outside SABC headquarters in Auckland Park.
Phamodi said the questions include: “How the SABC board could allow such SABC decay to continue as public representatives and how Minister of Communications, who took an oath and has a duty to ensure that the SABC complies with the broadcast act, also allowed this degeneration at SABC to continue?”
He claimed Parliament, through successive committees, chairpersons and ANC-led caucuses had also allowed the state the SABC was in to unfold.
Phamodi, accompanied by unionist Zwelinzima Vavi and other activists, had been scheduled to meet with Motsoeneng, but the meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour on Monday.
Phamodi said Motsoeneng called Vavi and cancelled a few minutes before the meeting was set to take place at midday.
Motsoeneng told Vavi that he was advised by his team to stay away from the scheduled meeting and that disciplinary hearings against six senior SABC journalists would go ahead.
The group of activists were barred from entering the SABC premises.
The meeting with Motsoeneng was to discuss the recent suspension of the senior journalists and the decision to ban the broadcast of protests.
Vavi said the journalists’ suspensions should be lifted with immediate effect.
“We insist that the six journalists should be reinstated immediately and unconditionally, and the editorial policy that was pushed through the back door by the SABC board be scrapped and that the original 2004 editorial policy be put in place … because this policy is illegal,” said Vavi.
He said Motsoeneng should also vacate his post.
“Motsoeneng must not be in this building. The high court had reinforced the public protector’s remedial action that says his appointment was irrational and illegal. We should be speaking to someone who is legally appointed and respects the constitution,” Vavi said.
Another meeting was planned for later on Monday in Newtown to take the fight against the SABC forward, Phamodi said.
“We will not stand down, we are concerned with what is happening in the SABC. We note the ANC saying it would probe Motsoeneng after initially backing his censorship. Although the intervention is too late, we hope they will continue on the right side of history in ensuring media freedom,” said Phamodi.
African News Agency