SABC feels it didn’t need DA reaction

President’s video sparks complaint

The SABC has said it was not obliged to get the reaction of the DA on the pre-recorded video of President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing that Section 25 of the constitution will be amended for land expropriation without compensation.

This was the public broadcaster’s response to the DA’s complaint that by allowing Ramaphosa to address the nation after the ANC’s lekgotla, the SABC should have also contacted other political parties to speak on the controversial issue of land.

The DA presented its arguments in its complaint against the SABC to a tribunal of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA (BCCSA) in Johannesburg.

The party argued that the SABC had breached the BCCSA code of conduct by not giving other political parties an opportunity to present their positions on the broadcast.

The SABC aired Ramaphosa’s speech, speaking in his capacity as ANC president, on its news channel The Globe, in July.

The broadcast received widespread condemnation from opposition parties.

“To favour the ANC, the lengthy package deteriorated into one-sided propaganda,” said the DA’s legal representative Nick Ferreira.

Ferreira said the SABC should have invited opposition party leaders, including EFF leader Julius Malema, to engage on the issue of land.

But Nyiko Shibambo, SABC acting manager for compliance, said it was not the public broadcaster’s business to tell the DA to watch Ramaphosa speak so it can react.

“They want their leader Mmusi Maimane to sit in a posh office and look at [the] camera. They want to blame the SABC. It does not make sense,” a visibly irritated Shibambo said.

He said the DA was given the opportunity to present its position on SABC’s Morning Live the day after Ramaphosa’s speech was aired.

“DA spokeswoman Portia Adams was interviewed on Morning Live,” he said.

“This is not about the contravention of the code of conduct. It is about something else. It is a racial thing.”

Ferreira said the DA wanted to be afforded an opportunity to state its position on the issue of land on the same slot and time.