Back to the old days?

“WE ARE not in support of any censorship. We are not in support of any public broadcaster... saying this is what you can watch, this is what you can’t,” ANC communications committee chairman Jackson Mthembu said this week.

I was relieved that the real ANC finally showed up on Tuesday, as for a couple of weeks we had been fed a narrative from the ANC that was in complete contrast. The official ANC spokesman, Zizi Kodwa, went to great lengths to defend the nonsense happening at the SABC.

Last week the acting CEO, Jimi Mathews, resigned, saying he could no longer continue doing things he was not part of at the SABC. This resignation threw the cat among the pigeons. It was now no longer a speculation, but clear there was something seriously amiss. That Mathews was part of the rot and was not, however, lost to many people. Many people recounted the strong arm tactics and moves he made at the helm. Do you remember the booing of President Zuma during the Mandela memorial service? It has now been claimed that Mathews frantically gave orders to journalists covering the event to not mention it or to refer to it as a “disturbance”.

There was a total blackout of it in the evening news. Did the ANC instruct him to do so or was he overzealous and thought that was what the party wanted? To its credit no one has proved the ANC gave instructions to promote bias towards it. Not everyone is convinced the ANC has had a genuine change of heart.

SABC chairperson Mbulaheni Maguvhe believes the statement by Mthembu was just “electioneering” – a view shared by the DA. “Mthembu’s flip-flop…on the SABC is damage control, a desperate attempt to salvage their deployee, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, and hide the fact that they are behind many of his machinations at the public broadcaster,” the DA’s James Selfe said. What’s next? The SABC is crucial, as the majority rely on it for news.

With the elections only three weeks away what is reported will affect the vote. We can not be complacent - we must make sure the SABC sticks to its mandate and does not become a state broadcaster like it was pre-1994.