Jacquie Golding-Duffy
A THREE-PART documentary on transformation at the South African Broadcasting Corporation – Going Live! – was pulled off the air at the last minute by the corporation’s management, who offered no explanation to executive producers Shane Mohabier and Saths Cooper.
Ironically the documentary, which was due to be aired on SABC 1 on Tuesday at 7pm, was commissioned by the SABC to illustrate that it had finally rid itself of its shameful past.
But it seems the SABC’s past “shame” has come back to haunt it, with some SABC insiders alleging that the programme’s axing, hours before it was to be broadcast, was linked to “a handful of people in the upper echelons”.
They “were unhappy with the criticism levelled at the SABC, especially after its relaunch. Going Live! was considered too sensitive and too premature, as hard-hitting criticisms were being made at a broadcaster attempting to meet several mandates,” one senior SABC staffer said.
The SABC blamed the delay on “technical problems”, adding that the producers “were given a limited period in which to produce the documentary and it was not yet ready for broadcast”.
However, Mohabier, who refused to be drawn on the issue, said the episodes were delivered on time, with the first episode handed to the commissioning editor 11 days before the prescribed deadline. “I am not willing to engage in a match with the SABC via the press but the documentary was on time,” he said.
An SABC spokesman said the decision to pull Going Live! was a “combined management decision” but it would be rescheduled within the next month.
Each 26-minute episode explores mandates placed on the SABC, ranging from catering for 11 different language groups to affirmative action inside the corporation. The series also looks at editorial and political control of the SABC, censorship and whether it is meeting its viewers’ needs.
All the episodes make extensive use of archival material. Some of the footage includes the last appearance of Nelson Mandela as he is returned to prison following the Rivonia trial, and the assassination of Dr Hendrik Verwoerd.
The first episode explores the background to broadcasting in South Arica, from the 1920s to the introduction of television in 1976 and the new, transformed and relaunched SABC of today. The second episode looks at varied perceptions of issues haunting the organisation while the third episode defines what the national public broadcaster ought to be and looks at the SABC’s funding situation and its vision for the future.
In a preview of the first two episodes, it was clear that the public perception of transformation is not all complimentary. Several guests pulled no punches – including National Party spokesman on broadcasting and party assistant secretary general, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Cape Times editor Moegsien Williams, Performance, Arts, Workers’ Equity vice-president Ramolao Makhene, independent producers, journalists and politicians as well as some high-profile SABC staffers such as SABC 3 programme director Christa Joubert, Focus presenter Freek Robinson and Independent Broadcasting Authority councillor Lyndall Shope-Mafole.
However, the programmes are well-balanced. Criticisms are challenged by several SABC executives including Zwelakhe Sisulu, SABC board chair Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, television chief executive Jill Chisholm, channel heads and commissioning editors
Some of the comments by guests on the programmes included: “The [SABC] reshaping was a disaster … witness to this was advertisers fleeing”; “The SABC has made a mistake about how it initiated the relaunch”; “We are wondering whether we got it [programming] right”; “SABC is a sad imitation of real TV”; “Lots of window- dressing at the expense of the taxpayer”; “Nepotism! Nepotism!”