POLITICS

ANC Chief Whip must back request for urgent meeting on SABC – John Steenhuisen

DA says ruling party thinks issue of broadcaster not urgent enough and can wait until Parliament reconvenes after local elections

DA calls on ANC Chief Whip to back request for  urgent meeting on SABC

5 July 2016

Last week I sent a letter to the ANC Chief Whip in Parliament, Jackson Mthembu, to request an urgent meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Communications to discuss the current crisis at the SABC and to demand answers from the Minister and the SABC leadership.

In response, I was told that the ANC in Parliament has agreed that this is not urgent enough and can wait until Parliament reconvenes after the Local Government Election on 3 August.

This cannot be accepted. The crisis at the SABC is only escalating, with more journalists having received charges and with mass action planned for tomorrow. There have also been revelations over the weekend that the SABC leadership have deliberately chosen to provide biased coverage of the ANC ahead of the election.

The current actions of SABC senior management are an affront to the basic freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution, and the reports of biased political party coverage are a serious risk to free and fair elections. 

I have thus today written again to Hon. Mthembu to urge him to reconsider his position on this and to urgently convene a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Communications under National Assembly (NA) Rule 223. 

I call on the ANC Chief Whip to take leadership at this time and ensure that Parliament intervenes in this situation as a matter of urgency.

For Parliament to fail to make use of this Rule in this instance, when the urgent nature of the matter cannot be denied, would be an indictment on this institution and would, in the view of the DA, be a failure by Parliament to provide oversight in protection of the constitutional rights of our citizens.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Chief Whip of the DA, 5 July 2016