It’s a sad, abject bunch of creeps (SABC), not the vibrant broadcaster we need
When reports appeared last week of the ANC’s attempt to strong-arm the SABC hierarchy from retrenching staff, I struggled to recall the last time I had watched or listened to any of its output. The SABC is no longer the centre of the universe that it used to be. If it disappeared, I probably would not have noticed. Which is a pity.
Much of what you read about the organisation is hardly endearing or appealing. It’s no longer the go-to place for news and information. Instead people make fun of it. With its reputation shot, it’s no wonder people give it a miss. News organisations live or die by their reputations.
The SABC, like no other broadcaster or news organisation, is supposed to occupy a special place in our political and cultural firmament. It should unite us. The well from which all of us quench our thirst and get sustenance. The public square where citizens get informed, argue, debate and ultimately are empowered to fully participate in our democracy. That’s why it’s a public broadcaster and we are required to pay it a licence fee. But like everything to do with the government these days, we not only don’t get value for our money, the organisation itself has been run down.
The main complaint about the SABC is that it has become an unabashed government mouthpiece. Instead of challenging and questioning power, it has become its dependable masseuse — caressing and stroking its ego. But that’s par for the course. It’s to be expected. In recent years, the organisation has been headed by journeymen with no background in broadcasting or journalism and who have no clue about its mandate, or its role in a complex and fast-changing society. Its preoccupation seems to be bending a knee to politicians. As is so often the case with less qualified and overeager lickspittles, they tend to go the extra mile in their desire to please their political master. Ben Ngubane and Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the duo who enabled state capture, were the icing on the cake, so to speak.
And as the SABC became mired in financial troubles, it had to go cap in hand to the government for bailouts, making it even more vulnerable to political interference. After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune. But the SABC has also become a dumping ground for the ANC’s most useless and corrupt cadres — Dina Pule, Nomvula Mokonyane, Ayanda Dlodlo, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams. A succession of dunces who hadn’t a clue, and owed allegiance to Luthuli House, not the SABC.
But political interference often comes with the territory. Suitably qualified and credible managers will obviously listen to complaints but won’t compromise the reputation of their organisations.
The SABC’s biggest mistake, however, is that it seems to have abandoned or forgotten its mission. Whether because of ignorance or poverty, it seems to have forsaken its mandate as a public broadcaster where news and current affairs, especially on radio, are the mainstay of its programming. Current affairs slots on most radio stations have been turned into talk shows, phone-in programmes or simply music. They’re no different from any commercial radio station.
That may not make a difference to urban listeners who have many options, but for people in rural areas, with no access to electricity, radio is their only window to the world. As Pallo Jordan once put it, in rural areas it’s either radio or rumour.
By curtailing news programmes, the SABC not only abandons those who need its services most, it shirks the overall responsibility for which it was founded.
Its financial woes are not unconnected to its decision to cut back on news and current affairs. Audiences have gone elsewhere.
Those in charge don’t seem to be aware of efforts made to preserve the status of the SABC as a public broadcaster. It was realised during the all-party talks that led to the 1994 poll that free and fair elections would almost be impossible unless the old guard running the SABC as an apartheid propaganda tool was removed, and to allow the SABC to become an independent source of news and information. Many NGOs participated in that endeavour to transform the organisation. Skilled broadcasters and journalists, who had previously given it a wide berth, flocked to the SABC before and after the elections. They all wanted to be part of this exciting national endeavour to create a new democratic society. It was more than just work. It felt like national service.
I’m sure the government tried to interfere at the time, but those working at the SABC never felt it. Zwelakhe Sisulu, the CEO, apart from having been a superb journalist and newspaper editor, came from a storied political family. He also had been, for a while, Nelson Mandela’s media person. He therefore understood the political terrain like the back of his own hand. As SABC CEO, he was also the gatekeeper, protecting employees against outside interference.
At one point, the then deputy president Thabo Mbeki demanded a special slot on the SABC for government propaganda. Jordan, then communications minister, refused. He was summarily dismissed from the cabinet. Such displays of courage are now almost unheard of.
Things looked promising then. Sadly, it’s all fallen apart now. The small minds who came after Sisulu set about helping the politicians to trash the organisation and its reputation. Skills fled — and with them audiences and advertisers.
The SABC will have to go back to its original mission as a genuine public broadcaster if it is to survive and recapture its past glory.