DA welcomes legal intervention to stop political interference in SABC retrenchments
2 December 2020
Note to Editors: Please find attached a soundbite by Phumzile Van Damme MP.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the complaint lodged by SOS Coalition and Media Monitoring Africa regarding the on-air request by two South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reporters for ANC Secretary-General, Ace Magashule and the ANC to intervene in the retrenchments process at the public broadcaster.
The complaint submitted to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) and the Press Ombudsman concerns an interview conducted by two reporters, Samkelo Maseko and NteboMoboko with ANC Secretary-General, Ace Magashule on Wednesday 18 November 2020 in which the SABC reporters called for the ANC to dissolve the board and repeatedly insinuated that there is a need for the ANC to intervene in retrenchment and went as far as to say:
“The Governing Party has yet to call the SABC Board and address them, what is the ANC doing to save jobs at the public broadcaster? ́; “What have you (the ruling party) done in halting the process of s189? ́ “Mr Magashule, let me put it bluntly, the SABC is forging ahead with retrenchments, whether we like it or not. You are sitting there as Secretary-General of the governing party. What is stopping you from extending a call right now, to president Ramaphosa, ... to say President, please make sure that those poor workers of the SABC do not lose their jobs.”
We know that this is not the view of all SABC staff, many of whom bare the emotional scars of fighting fearlessly for the independence of the SABC. We encourage those staff members to continue guard against any political interference at the public broadcaster.
While we understand the frustration related to the possibility of being jobless, inviting political interference is absolutely not the solution, and in fact, encourages unlawful conduct.
There is legislation in place to deal with concerns regarding the related to s189 of the Labour Relations Act, and that is the CCMA and the Labour Court, and not the ANC.
Besides the Broadcasting Act making it very clear that the SABC board, and not the Minister, or the governing party has the exclusive power to control the affairs of the Corporation, including how the SABC operates its business and conducts labour relations with its employees, the SABC’s Editorial Polices also make it very clear in s3(a) that while respecting editorial independence, staff must: “not allow commercial, political or personal considerations and prejudices to influence editorial decisions. The SABC is expected to provide information and as part of this duty should evaluate, analyse and critically appraise government policies and programme.”
Similarly, the blackout that SABC staff have threatened should it not get its way regarding retrenchments will fall foul of the requirement, and will result in disciplinary action, and correctly so, as it will not only fall foul of this requirement but also the SABC’s public mandate.
We remind SABC staff that the public broadcaster exists to serve to the interests of the South African public, and establish a strong and committed public broadcasting service which will service the needs of all South African society, and not the personal considerations of staff.
We trust that there will be no further actions taken by SABC staff encouraging political interference, or failing the South African public by putting their personal interests ahead of those of the public.
Issued by Phumzile Van Damme,DA Shadow Minister of Communications & Digital Technologies, 2 December 2020
