Heads are rolling at the SABC … the wrong ones

January 31st, 2007

SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu said in the middle of last year’s SABC “blacklist� saga that “heads would roll� if an independent inquiry found that there had been wrongdoing.

Well, heads have rolled. He delivered on that promise. What we didn’t expect, however, was that these heads would belong to those who came out best in the inquiry report. Those found in the report to have breached the SABC charter repeatedly by banning from the airwaves controversial commentators and analysts, those responsible for an “atmosphere of fear� in the newsroom�, still have their heads firmly attached to their shoulders.

This week, respected journalist and presenter John Perlman resigned. He gave no reason for his decision..This follows shortly after it was announced that his co-presenter Nikiwe Bikitsha would also be leaving. The flagship of SABC current affairs shows is left vacant and bereft.

Here’s SAFM’s own description, taken from their website: “John Perlman heads up the hottest news team on radio. The co-presenter of AM Live is a seasoned journalist and outstanding broadcaster. Current affairs and local and international news coverage are his fortes, drawing the largest audience on SAfm. If there’s one show you dare not miss, it’s AM Live.â€?

The most striking thing is that no-one has criticised the report issued by former SABC CEO Zwelakhe Sisulu and senior advocate Gilbert Marcus on the blacklisting affair. Nobody has given any substantial reason to question the evidence they gathered or their conclusions.

They said Perlman had behaved professionally. They said that SABC and its representatives had been dishonest by omission in their response to allegations that there was a blacklist of commentators who were not allowed on air. They confirmed that there were indeed a number of people blocked from the airwaves for reasons which were in contravention of the SABC Charter. They described serious management problems in the SABC newsroom.

Mpofu was energetic in his response. First, he tried to keep the report secret. Then he went after those who made it public. On the first Sunday morning after the release, he did a radio show, rushed to a television show, and back to radio, using these platforms mainly to denounce those who had published the report. No longer was he saying that he would act against anyone who breached the SABC’s Charter.

In other words, he did everything except pursue the findings and recommendations of the report. And he did it with drive and passion.

Something happened between Mpofu’s decision to call the inquiry and the release of its report. It is clear what it must have been: it became obvious to Mpofu that his board of directors were not with him. To keep his promise to clean things up and do it transparently, he would have to take on his board. Mpofu chose not to.

The person who emerges strongest from all of this is the head of news, Dr Snuki Zikalala. He has shown twice now that he is more powerful than the CEO. The previous incumbent drove him out, and the board of directors brought him back. That CEO, Peter Matlare, soon left. Now an independent report commissioned by the next CEO pointed to serious problems in Zikalala’s news management. The CEO, Mpofu, has had to back down and try and bury the report. Zikalala’s critics are leaving the building.

One can only look upon this with an overwhelming sense of sadness. The notion of a national broadcaster as a home for the highest quality, independent, public service journalism is being denigrated. Those who are most cynical about it – who believe that any public broadcaster is going to serve the short-term needs of its political masters, who want to see the complete privatization of media – are grinning from ear to ear.

This is a year when an independent broadcaster could play a critical role in opening up our political debate. So far it is the newspapers which have forced into the open the question of succession in the ANC, and forced the most important issue of the day out of the closed corridors of ANC headquarters and into the public eye.

It is television – particularly the powerful SABC - which could enrich our democracy by opening up to scrutiny all the candidates and focusing the debate on their policies and suitability for the post. But an SABC that buries its own report on problems in its newsroom and chooses instead to drive out some of its most independent and respected journalists is not going to do this.

* This column first appeared in Business Day, January 31, 2007

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Radio, Journalism