Johannesburg - The SABC must be rescued from Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s clutches if South Africans are expected to make informed decisions during next month’s municipal polls. So said a group of activists and civil-society leaders who descended on the broadcaster’s headquarters in Auckland Park on Monday.
The group had come for a scheduled meeting with Motsoeneng, only to be refused entry. Motsoeneng, whose appointment to his post was ruled illegal by the public protector, has unleashed a reign of fear at the SABC, where he has told journalists they are free to leave if they don’t support his restrictive editorial policies.
The SOS Coalition and other civil-society organisations had hoped to discuss the crisis dogging the corporation, particularly the censorship controversy that has engulfed the broadcaster, which has led to the suspension of senior journalists who challenged Motsoeneng.
But security officers manning the SABC gates said they had been given strict instructions by management not to allow them through.
Among those who had hoped to have a word with Motsoeneng was the SOS Coalition’s Sekoetlane Phamodi; former Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi; Right2Know’s Micah Reddy; and Karima Brown, group executive editor of Independent Media, owners of The Star.
Vavi said: “We are insisting that there can be no free and fair elections on August 3 if the airwaves are not freed from the clutches of Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the delinquent board that supports him.
“As long as there is this information load-shedding, there can be no free flow of information that can make South Africans make informed choices on August 3.
“It goes to the heart of what democracy and the public broadcaster is all about, and that’s why we are very angry and taken aback by this attempt to block us out.”
Brown said Motsoeneng’s presence at the SABC hindered the public broadcaster’s “ability to be an instrument that makes these elections free and fair”.
“The reason Mr Motsoeneng needs to go now is we must respect the court. We are a constitutional democracy. Mr Motsoeneng’s presence here, his instructions to journalists, his ability to tell them what to cover and what not to cover impedes the SABC’s ability to be an instrument that makes these elections free and fair.”
Motsoeneng’s appointment as chief operating officer was last year found to be irrational and unlawful, and was set aside by the Western Cape High Court.
The SABC’s and Motsoeneng’s application for leave to appeal were dismissed with costs.
Adding their voices to a growing chorus opposed to Motsoeneng’s “dictatorial” leadership on Monday were several former SABC board members, who wrote a joint letter to President Jacob Zuma, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi and SABC board chairman Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe, expressing their “grave concerns” over the SABC’s “gross violation” of broadcasting principles.
The former SABC board members stressed in their letter that the broadcaster’s board should “immediately appoint a credible and independent task team to investigate the malaise at the corporation and allow all employees to give evidence without fear or victimisation”.
The governing ANC has also called on Muthambi to launch a probe into all the allegations levelled against Motsoeneng, who reportedly rules the corporation by decree.
When Jimi Matthews resigned as the SABC's acting group executive last week, ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa lashed out at him, and described the veteran journalist as being used by forces wanting to undermine the SABC’s questionable integrity.
Yesterday, Vavi said the ANC’s call for a probe bordered on political posturing and characterised it as a “statement in the wilderness that has come too late”.
“We think this is an attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that they endorsed censorship. We hope the investigation won’t fall by the wayside, like the investigation about state capture has,” Vavi added.
Brown called on the ruling party to clarify the probe’s time-frame, saying that if it didn’t happen before the municipal elections, then “it is not going to help us to give credibility to the local government elections”.
ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said: “We believe that the SABC is a public good, itis a public broadcaster, it belongs to all the people of South Africa and we also believe very strongly that there should be no interference in how the SABC newsroom is run.”