Stella gets flak for censorship

BID TO STOP FILMING OF PROTEST AGAINST ANC

New communications head off to a bad start trying to stop filming of protest against ANC.

New communications head off to a bad start, drawing widespread criticism.

Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has had an inauspicious start in her new role, commentators say, but whether she will match the controversies created by her predecessor is yet to be seen.

Reacting to footage revealed over the weekend showing Ndabeni-Abrahams’ trying to block media from filming a protesting crowd during an ANC manifesto launch in the Eastern Cape, Wits University head of journalism Franz Kruger described it as unfortunate.

While the minister’s swift apology was encouraging, he said, it was too early to predict whether she could restore the confidence lost in her portfolio by former communications minister Faith Muthambi’s term of office. Muthambi’s tenure was plagued by controversy, which culminated in parliament finding she had politically interfered in the SABC and “displayed incompetence”.

“In the run-up to the elections, one needs to pay close attention to these incidents. But that she apologised so quickly does suggest that we won’t see any more of this behaviour,” Kruger said.

“The first thing that drew attention was when she fell out with the SABC after she was appointed. There was a row about what was going to happen at the SABC now that they have pulled back from their plan of retrenching.

“We haven’t seen what she plans to do instead, because there is still a financial crisis at the SABC. It is not yet clear what we are going to see in the future.”

The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) was less forgiving. “While we note the minister has apologised, we are concerned that she refers to her action as an ‘altercation’. Given her high-profile portfolio relating in particular to the SABC, we would like to have an urgent meeting with her to discuss the matter and our concerns,” it said.

Democratic Alliance MP and communications spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said the party was not surprised by the incident, suggesting it was par for the course in that portfolio.

“The minister’s actions are no different from previous ANC ministers who sought to control the SABC through political interference. Her act is not a once-off or a mistake, she was doing what the ANC has been doing for years, and were allowed to by captured SABC management and boards.” – simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

One characteristic of the ANC elite, when they get elevated to serious positions of power, such as ministers, is that they tend to think and behave as if that particular portfolio is their personal fiefdom. That means, in basic terms, any resources within that area are theirs and any government employees can be treated as little more than feudal serfs.

Perhaps because of its powerful position in society, the national broadcaster has been seen as a playground for its political bosses.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the unqualified but politically connected charlatan who almost ran the SABC into the ground, was adept at both ways of exerting his feudal power.

Now, it seems, the new communications minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, believes all those who work for the public broadcaster are there to do exactly what she says.

Hence, she tried to block a TV crew from the SABC from covering the launch of the ANC’s election manifesto in the Eastern Cape over the weekend. When the crew began recording protesters disrupting proceedings, Ndabeni-Abrahams put her hand in front the SABC camera lens and ordered the journalists not to cover the disruption.

When she later realised that this, quite correctly, would be interpreted as heavy-handed government censorship, Ndabeni-Abrahams ducked and dived in her apology, insisting there was an “altercation”.

There was no such thing, Minister. It was a ruling party apparatchik applying the Stalinist tactics so much favoured by many of her comrades.

Ndabeni-Abrahams’ interference is nothing new: soon after she was appointed, she caused resignations from the SABC board because she wanted to do what she wanted.

This attitude flies in the face of the new transparency apparently being promoted by President Cyril Ramaphosa and others in the ANC.

Ndabeni-Abrahams should be fired if the ANC is in any way serious about true democracy and freedom.