The ‘New’ Politics of Public Service Broadcasting in South Africa: Is the SABC Insulated?

One can be forgiven for suggesting that the South African Broadcasting Corporation is a microcosm of South Africa’s changing political landscape. In a way, this correlation between politics and state broadcasting has always been the ‘curse’ of the SABC, the legally sanctioned provider of public service broadcasting in the country. Prior to the ‘blessing’ of the multiparty democratic elections of 1994, the ruling National Party used the state broadcaster to inculcate the ideology of apartheid or racial separatism. 14 years after ushering in a multiparty dispensation, there is a sense of political déjà vu in the operations of the SABC.

The operational chaos being witnessed at the SABC is indicative of the fast changing political terrain in South Africa. Under the SABC Charter, the SABC is governed by a board of directors. Board nominees are vetted by a relevant portfolio committee of Parliament.

Amid opposition and civil-society complaints about the over-representation of ruling party members, a new board came into being. This board was seen as representative of what had emerged as the dominant faction within the African National Congress, led by populist Jacob Zuma. Prior to his election as party president, Zuma was seen as a victim of the politico-legal machinations of Thabo Mbeki, the then party and Republican president. Following the Polokwane intra-ANC election defeat for the party presidency at the hands of Zuma, Mbeki became a lame-duck Republican president, with a very uncertain political future within the ANC.

Prior to the ANC General Conference in Polokwane, two distinct factions had emerged within the ANC. The Zuma faction was seen as tending towards collectivised party decision-making and the Mbeki faction was seen as indicative of centralised, bureaucratic decision-making.  Mbeki’s apparent self-centred style of leadership was seen as having marginalised the base of the ANC’s following.

Zuma’s victory almost certainly meant that the institutions of State, including state broadcasting, would be subject to the scrutiny of the ANC. It was clear that the pro-Mbeki SABC bureaucrats would have to face up to the collective decisions of the ‘new’ ANC. Indeed, the new board, reflecting the changed leadership profile of the ANC, moved to suspend the SABC Group Chief Executive Officer, Adv. Dali Mpofu. Mpofu was largely seen as a pro-Mbeki appointee.

The suspension of Mpofu is interesting. He was accused, among other things, of having wrongly suspended the executive responsible for the News and Current Affairs Division of the SABC, Dr. Snuki Zikalala, widely seen as an ANC stalwart. Prior to his suspension by Mpofu, Zikalala had been accused by a 2006 SABC commission of enquiry into blacklisting and related matters of generating a controversial ‘blacklist’ of media commentators, experts and analysts that he thought had consistently disagreed with ANC policies on such issues as HIV and AIDS, Mbeki’s ‘quiet diplomacy’ in Zimbabwe, and the like.

The suspension of Mpofu by the new board was followed by a flurry of court appearances in which Mpofu challenged the legality of the meeting at which the board had suspended him. His efforts proved largely unsuccessful.

Needless to say, there is a clear correlation between the ANC’s intra-party politics and the operations of the SABC. The developments charted above point to this correlation, in at least three senses. Firstly, the ANC members of the SABC board seem to have carried with them their entrenched party-political interests. This contradicts what is legally and editorially expected of them. Legally, the Broadcasting Act 4 of 1999 resolves to “align the broadcasting system with the democratic values of the Constitution and to enhance and protect the fundamental rights of citizens”, requiring the SABC board members to be independent, impartial and civically competent.

Editorially, the SABC Code of Conduct, revised in 2004, affirms that “the SABC is not the mouthpiece of the government of the day, nor should it broadcast its opinion of government policies, unless they relate directly to broadcasting matters.” The direct intervention of board members, though at times desirable in the public interest, is clearly an interference with the executive autonomy of the SABC, blunting its public-service broadcasting edge.

Secondly, the board accusations of their GCEO and the GCEO’s counter-accusations of the board have had a way of imposing a ‘chilling effect’ on the independence, innovativeness and ingenuity of staff. My personal conversations with some of the SABC staff members indicates that micro-sites of political contestation are now rife at different levels of the SABC’s staffing regime, pretty much reflecting the macro-societal political realignment. This is likely to create working conditions that are not conducive to the practice of independent public service broadcasting. In fact, the resignations of top SABC producers, such as John Perlman and Steven Lang, in the wake of the ‘blacklisting’ commission enquiry report, could possibly be attributable to the increasing politicisation of the corporation.

The formation of the new opposition political party, the Congress of the People (COPE), right out of the smouldering embers of intra-ANC factional politics, is likely to make matters worse. Based upon the pattern of behaviour exhibited by the SABC board and the counter-actions of top management, it is likely that the realignment in the country’s political landscape will result in partisan broadcasting.

Thirdly, the public pressure being marshalled on the SABC board to become less interventionist in the daily operations of the SABC hints at the public’s eroding confidence and trust in the corporation’s ability to live up to its public service mandate. Organisations like the Media Monitoring Project (South Africa) and the Freedom of Expression Institute have launched the ‘Save our SABC’ public campaign, agitating for the greater editorial independence of the corporation. Clearly, the campaign is a barometer of waning public trust in the SABC. It is also indicative of the wider societal political realignment. Civil-societal formations are emerging to challenge the ANC’s stranglehold on the institution of public service broadcasting. It is probably this resilience of South African civil society that will determine the future shape of public service broadcasting in South Africa. 

The struggle for the soul of the SABC has become more real than apparent.

Photo Credit: Flickr user richiesoft