‘Nothing wrong with paying’
Dlamini’s spokeswoman defends TV interview
Lumka Oliphant, the spokeswoman for Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, has penned an open letter to Wits Professor Anton Harber and media outlets following criticism that Dlamini’s office forked out R149 000 for her to be interviewed on an SABC television programme.
Dlamini was interviewed on Real Talk with Anele‚ a daily magazine show on SABC3. The two-part interview was broadcast last month.
Harber penned an opinion piece‚ saying Dlamini had destroyed the SABC’s journalistic credibility by paying for the interview. The SABC has admitted that it had not complied with its editorial policy when it took payment from the Social Development Department because the public broadcaster did not charge for interviews.
In a lengthy letter‚ posted on her Facebook page‚ Oliphant stressed that the department had done nothing wrong in paying for the interview.
“I am still trying to recover from your opinion piece published in the Daily Maverick that ‘Bathabile Dlamini has destroyed the credibility of the SABC’ and I think maybe even Wits owes the department a refund.”
Oliphant said every year around this time she got phone calls and meeting requests from members of the media.
“This is not the work of journalists but their advertising departments and sometimes editors. They want to be considered in my spending plan and they all compete for the budget. They bring colourful proposals and negotiate for better pricing.
“Morally‚ I always feel that the SABC needs to get a better slice of the cake and I stand firm on that decision.
“They have the platforms‚ the reach and the languages. None of you commercial media can compete with them.”
Oliphant wrote that she was happy but concerned about the decision by the SABC to refund the money. “It is a bad precedent and I do not know if we are all owed money by the public broadcaster. They crumbled under pressure and did not stand for a principle. But the board has decided. I am concerned now that we must start defining what interview means. What paying for interview means. It’s going to be interesting. Not only for the SABC but for the rest of the media.”
She claimed to have received a proposal from Power FM last year for the minister to host a show during Women’s Month.
“Others I believe paid‚ others did not. Again‚ I understand why everyone needs to be creative and sell good proposals to us.
“I have paid for [interviews on] Morning Live and Sunrise. I have paid Primedia because this department led by this minister had clinched another clean audit. All this was done‚ yes‚ to clean the image that all of you want her to have despite working hard. Yes‚ it was done so that all of you would stop the narrative that she drinks when she is leading the campaign against alcohol abuse and has come out to say: ‘I am epileptic and I take strong medication‚ I cannot afford
to take alcohol!’”