[DEBATE] : FXI facilitates march on SABC by poor communities

Wed Nov 15 14:45:41 GMT 2006

November 14, 2006

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is facilitating a march of
working class and poor communities on the South African Broadcasting
Corporation (SABC), to demand a transparent and accountable public
broadcaster. The march is being held tomorrow (Thursday 16th of November
2006) and will start to gather at 09h00 outside the Sable Centre 41 De
Korte Street, Braamfontein. The march will start at 10h00 sharp, and
will travel down Enoch Sontonga Road to the SABC Radio Park building
where a short rally will be held and a memorandum of grievances and
demands will be handed to the SABC Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO),
Adv. Dali Mpofu. The whole activity is expected to last until 14H00. 

The march is meant to highlight the frustrations of poor communities
with the SABC, which is supposed to report in a manner that is fair,
balanced and free from prejudice. This stems from the fact that the SABC
is a public broadcaster and has to ensure that the voice of the working
class and poor communities are also heard. The recent developments at
the SABC have been worrying, and the SABC seems to have become a
fully-fledged mouthpiece of government.

The past six months has also seen intense engagement between the FXI and
communities on issues related to the public broadcaster and censorship.
These engagements have led to many grievances being aired about the
conduct of the SABC. The SABC issue that attracted the most attention in
the past six months, and that has angered poor communities, was its
decision to halt the screening of a documentary on President Thabo
Mbeki, as part of the "Unauthorised" series. The documentary takes a
critical stance towards Mbeki, and includes - most shockingly -
information that is already common knowledge and is therefore of no
surprise to anyone. With all the energy at the SABC and the media
attention relating to the SABC being diverted towards dealing with these
controversial issues, the needs of the public - particularly poor and
marginalized communities - that should be fulfilled by the public
broadcaster, often get ignored.

Then allegations emerged that some analysts who have been critical of
government's lack of service delivery to poor communities and the
general conduct of the state were blacklisted. The SABC then set up a
commission of enquiry to look into the allegations. Subsequent to that
the SABC did not want to publish the findings of the commission, and
even attempted to interdict the Mail and Guardian newspaper to force it
to take the report down from its website: yet another indication that
the SABC was moving towards censorship. The communities the FXI has been
engaging with have also expressed deep dissatisfaction on this issue as
well.

The current struggles and campaigns for social services that are waged
by working class and poor communities have received little or no
coverage from the SABC. Poor communities can only assume that these
matters are not reported because they are embarrassing to the commissars
of the SABC, namely the ANC-led government.

The SABC has to increase the number of programmes that reflect on the
realities of working class and poor communities. We need to have
platforms in the SABC that gives the space for the poor to articulate
its interests. The march intends to highlight these demands.

Contact:

Virginia Magwaza-Setshedi, Head: Media and ICT's Programme, 083 557 1339

Torong Ramela, Organiser: Media and ICT's Programme, 082 409 0430

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