Johannesburg - The SACP has called on the government and Parliament to take drastic action against the SABC for allegedly blacking out its yearly Red October launch at the weekend.
The party accused the public broadcaster of incompetence and allowing “interference by forces” in its internal editorial policy.
The party said it was aggrieved that a “presenter voice-over was used along with newsmaker images without audio” to cover the event during Sunday’s news bulletin.
SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo added that the voice-over, which he said was interrupted, was repeated on the SABC’s 24 news channel, 404.
“The SACP calls for an investigation into what happened, and for the SABC to explain to the public and report to Parliament. What happened at the SABC over the weekend is known in international broadcasting as ‘black-on-air’,” Mashilo said on Monday.
“Black-on-air is indeed often seen as a symptom of a deep structural and systemic crisis in a broadcasting entity. This calls for serious action as it should be a cause for concern to all those committed to public broadcasting,” he added.
Mashilo said the SACP was the victim of the SABC’s “administrative disarray and incompetence”.
“The disarray in the SABC is the direct outcome of unsuitable and unqualified personnel in key positions, as well as internal interference by these forces in editorial policy. The SACP calls for drastic intervention by the government and relevant authorities.
“Action needs to be taken for institutional, operational, administrative and governance failures where these occur.”
Mashilo said that without public accountability, the SABC would be driven even further from its mandate as a public broadcaster towards “serving narrow sectional and private interests”.
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago denied the broadcaster was imposing a blackout on the SACP. He said the SABC was investigating the matter.
“It’s not true that we are incompetent and interfering with editorial policy. It was more of a technical glitch; the glitch that wasn’t about them (SACP),” Kganyago said.
The Star