With last week’s departure of several top SABC-TV news bosses, this week witnessed a changing of the guard. FERIAL HAFFAJEE reports
SABC television’s new editor-in-chief Allister Sparks was in before eight on Tuesday morning, his first day on the job, and chaired his first news meeting just minutes later. By noon, former editor-in- chief Joe Thloloe’s phone extension was already being answered with a ”Mr Sparks’s office. Good afternoon.”
But Sparks won’t keep his perch on the fourth floor of the television building for long; he wants to move down to a glass office on the third floor where his staff will be able to see him. Until now, TV news top management have worked in offices far removed from the programme makers who put out the nightly news and current affairs programmes. Sparks this week stressed that he would be no admin man. Nor will he be ”in at seven and out by four,” he said to staff.
It is the SABC’s bureaucratic mess of forms, procedures and other paper-pushing tasks which sapped the time and energy of his predecessors, diverting them from the task of polishing news and documentaries.
But at the same time as Sparks was learning his way around the SABC corridors this week, growing dissent was being voiced at his former workplace, the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ). Staffers began to go public with their concerns about a potential conflict of interest. The IAJ can provide training for SABC journalists. Sparks has a vested interest in both the SABC and the IAJ. Staff fear he could use his position at the SABC to secure contracts for the IAJ and compromise the institute. Just last year he proposed a R1,5-million IAJ training contract to the SABC. It came to nought, but now SABC and IAJ insiders fear that ”Sparks is positioning the IAJ for future training contracts”.
They point out that as his SABC contract is only binding for 12 months, he will be returning to the IAJ next year. At a staff meeting when he resigned two weeks ago, IAJ workers questioned the potential for conflict of interest with regard the SABC. Minutes from that meeting read: ”Allister replied that he saw no conflict of interest as we are a training institute and not a business. He reiterated the fact that he felt this was an opportunity for the institute to get into the SABC.” But Sparks is likely to recuse himself from any contracts with the IAJ.
Meanwhile, back at the broadcaster, uncertainty was slowly giving way to nervous optimism. ”Suddenly, there’s something again. A buzz,” said one senior producer. A staffer who was initially sceptical, but pleasantly suprised after Sparks’s meeting, wants just one thing: ”Action now. We’ve heard this all before.”
Sparks will appoint a task team to help him restructure news and only then will further appointments be made. But what is clear, three years after the first gusts of change blew through Auckland Park, is that there will be a very different crew in charge of television. These are some of the players set to assume positions of top management within SABC-TV structures:
Molefe Mokgatle
IF the public broadcaster is to begin to take the bottom line seriously, then Molefe Mokgatle will be headmaster. A marketer and economist, he has taken over from Jill Chisholm as acting chief executive of television. On the downside, he has no practical experience of making television and this may initially isolate sectors of the industry. They are worried that good television could be sacrificed by over- emphasis on profit margins. But his achievements in the cut-throat business world may be just what the doctor ordered for a corporation which is finding it increasingly difficult to squeeze funds from government and must also fight to retain a share of the advertising revenue cake. Mokgatle studied at top business schools and, under his hand, SABC1 (with CCV, of which he was also boss) turned a profit for the first time in its history. Mokgatle is 39 years old and is married with two sons. He enjoys cooking, boxing and jogging. His MBA dissertation title, Managing Change in a Turbulent Transition, could prove to be invaluable to the SABC.
Govin Reddy
IT’S been a meteoric rise for this teacher, historian and broadcast manager who returned from exile in 1991. He is currently chief executive of SABC radio, a position he will retain, but is increasingly being drawn into the broader management of the corporation. His new informal role as SABC chief executive Zwelakhe Sisulu’s second-in-command now gives him clout at TV as well. Reddy was the IAJ’s deputy director prior to joining the SABC in 1994. He also edited Africa South and served as deputy editor-in-chief of the IPS Third World News Agency in Rome. The dapper 53-year-old enjoys tennis and classical music. He’s married with two children and has two other children from a previous marriage.
Allister Sparks
WADING through Sparks’s CV is a journey through a mind-boggling life of achievement. One of his most notable successes is a Pulitzer prize nomination for his work on the Washington Post. He has bagged a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, the coveted Pringle award for feature writing and Harvard’s Louis M Lyon award, among others. Sparks has worked for several leading newspapers, including The Washington Post, The Observer and The Economist and served as the editor of both The Sunday Express and the Rand Daily Mail. During his secondment to SABC-TV, he will be expected to overhaul the news. It’s going to be a tough task and there is no room for failure: ”Allister has an international reputation to protect,” said one producer. Sparks seems to be aware of his own shortcomings. He told staff this week that he is not the best manager or administrator. Ask any number of people about him and the one adjective that arises most often is ”arrogant”. The 64-year-old has had some TV production experience, but jets off next week to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where he will study their television news structure. He is married with four children. Newspapers are his great passion, though he also enjoys cricket, sailing and walking.
Phil Molefe
THE burly Molefe with the booming voice is currently political editor of SABC-TV news, but has been earmarked for greater things. He’s likely to take over as head of TV news in a restructuring exercise which could see the positions formerly held by Ivan Fynn (head of news) and Jeremy Thorpe (chief executive producer) merged. Molefe has been among the instigators of change at TV news for several months now. He started out as editor of the student struggle publication Saspu National, then moved to the Mail & Guardian and The Star, where he served as education reporter and deputy news editor respectively. Lured to the SABC in 1994, he covered Nelson Mandela as he cast his ballot as well as his first official diplomatic visits. 40-year-old Molefe also has an MA in journalism from the University of Wales and has won a string of awards.
The others
AMONG those to watch at SABC-TV news include Ivor Powell, currently Molefe’s deputy. He’s being tipped to take over as political editor.
Also keep an eye on Amina Frense, currently executive producer of Good Morning South Africa. The programme is set to be taken off air in July, when she will probably be redeployed to work either on news bulletins or current affairs. Frense’s talents have been somewhat stifled on GMSA, but she’s one of the few black South Africans who have a solid experience in TV.
Sarah Crowe, head of current affairs and Ivan Fynn, head of news have had a turbulent week. Sisulu panicked when they resigned last Thursday and asked that they withold their resignations. This week he changed his mind, saying they could go. But then they decided they wanted to stay.
By Tuesday, a chat between Crowe and Sisulu saw her decide to stay after the new plan for TV news was revealed, but Fynn is still waiting for his appointment with Sisulu.