SABC bias must end

DEAR SIR — The likely outcome of an interview involving an experienced statesman and a young aspirant journalist, who possesses little direct or indirect historical knowledge of the issues on the table for the interview but relied on employing accusatorial phraseologies steeped in political propaganda based on misinformation, is bound to be extremely unsatisfactory.

This is precisely what happened during the SABC “question time” interview with the president of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi on September 4 — and the fault lies with the current affairs management of the public broadcaster.

It is understandable that, in the process of expanding its broadcasting hours to 24, the SABC had to increase its contingent of journalists. But it is highly suspect for the SABC not to have fielded a seasoned journalist to interview Prince Buthelezi.

Unless the motive behind this interview was not to elicit information on the IFP’s socioeconomic policies but to denigrate the IFP and its leader. It is a well-known fact that they have never been the darlings of some of the apparatchiks heading the SABC. Ironically, previous question time interviews with other leaders dwelled more on their party policies and critical assessment of the performance of the government. Why the deviation this time?

Unfortunately, the imminent political decadence of this bias attitude on the part of the SABC promotes a monumental frustration of former president Nelson Mandela’s quest for reconciliation simply because it feeds on the negativity of the conflicts of the past between the African National Congress and the IFP, and this practice needs therefore to come to an end.