A Motsoeneng repeat

IT shows how far we have drifted from the ideals of 1994 that we are no longer greatly shocked at the havoc SABC strongman Hlaudi Motsoeneng is causing at the corporation. It’s ho-hum, now, a sick joke. Par for the course. He is a tinpot dictator’s dream ally, and one can imagine him enjoying the dubious pleasure of many a weekend stay at Nkandla in years to come.

Gone are high-flown notions of a genuine public broadcaster serving all South Africans with impartiality, integrity and professionalism. A broadcaster not beholden to the ruling party, as it was in the days of PW Botha, who was said to have had a hotline to SABC editors.

No need for that hotline now, because Motsoeneng follows his master’s whims to a tee.

Gone, too, is impartiality and telling the news like it is. The SABC has been purged of independent voices — and Motsoeneng even rebuked one of his own presenters on air, telling her she “must speak” like an SABC employee.

From banning the broadcast of destructive protests, to instructing staff to stop “advertising” print media by reading the day’s newspaper headlines, to canning The Editors talkshow, Motsoeneng is a one-man “dumb-down” show.

That he sings for his supper is proved by the SABC sparing no effort, or a cent of your taxpayer money, to keep him in business. This week, it said it would petition the Supreme Court of Appeal to contest a High Court ruling setting aside his appointment as chief operating officer.

While the lawyers haggle, Motsoeneng has other ideas: an SABC uniform, for example, to promote unity, like they do in the army.

Discerning viewers are falling into line, too — one by one they are switching off His Master’s Voice. Motsoeneng couldn’t care less — his antics are for one set of ears only.