The Freedom Front Plus is strongly opposed to the amendment of the Broadcasting Act according to which the SABC Board as a whole could be fired at the same time. It is a transparent step of the ANC to obtain permanent political control over the SABC Board and thus control over the public broadcaster.

In practice this means that the ruling party will permanently be holding a sword over the heads of the SABC Board Members to act in such a way that they gain the approval of the ANC. This is a far-reaching infringement on the SABC's independence as public broadcaster.

Amendments to the law to get rid of individual members of the SABC Board who are guilty of corruption or similar serious cases, which the FF Plus supports, is something totally different to this new amendment.

All South African television viewers are forced by law to pay TV licenses. These license payers include members of all political parties as well as viewers who also watch other TV services. The income from licenses is used to subsidise the SABC. It makes it so much worse that one political party, such as the ANC, with this amendment will obtain total control over the broadcaster.

The reason for the amendment of the Broadcasting Act is directly linked to the power struggle and change of leadership in the ANC. Alarm bells should be sounding over the abuse of democracy when a ruling party finds it necessary to amend laws in order to solve internal short term problems.

Statement issued by Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front Plus, August 13 2008