A leaked memo shows that there are serious disagreements at the SABC over the termination of the broadcaster’s news service. Richard Siskind reports
AFTER three weeks without Sapa’s news service, a split erupted this week at the SABC when a leaked internal memo from TV executive producer Jeremy Thorpe was reported to have said the broadcaster could not do without the news service.
This follows radio editor-in-chief Barney Mthombothi’s “diatribe” against Sapa in newspapers last week that it was laughable to think the SABC would suffer without the news agency.
Sapa cut-off their 24-hour news feed after more than six months of deadlocked negotiations concerning the broadcaster’s subscription fee.
The Mail & Guardian understands that a R3- million sports advertising deal with some radio stations hangs in the balance because of the cut-off.
Thorpe’s memo outlines the disarray at the SABC. He said television news could not afford to do without the Sapa service and could not rely on the “short, often disjointed, invariably uncontextualised, often inaccurate and sometimes barely understandable copy from [SABC’s] radio news”.
He said he had been saddened, angered and disgusted by Mthombothi’s “diatribe” against Sapa in the print media. “Sadness that a simple, and probably temporary breakdown in negotiations should have escalated into an all-out public war of words between two respected organisations; anger and disgust that blind arrogance and petty egos have left those of us who benefited from Sapa’s service battling to do our jobs.”
Thorpe added that Mthombothi’s comment did not reflect the views of television news, sports programmes on commercial radio stations and Topsport.
Although Mthombothi insisted that the SABC is better off than before, and representative Enoch Sithole said they would manage without the service, several Sapa staffers told the M&G this is not the case. Many SABC staff, they say, continue to try and extract information from Sapa, especially for sport results, often refusing to identify themselves or lying about who they represent.
In his article, Mthombothi does not explain how the SABC, with a staff quotient of 700 reporters in both radio and TV, has become so dependent on Sapa, with a staff of 50.
But Wits University’s Media Monitoring Project’s Update, a weekly media analysis, does: “The answer, of course, is that years of SABC monopoly of the airwaves and a steady income for the broadcaster have resulted in laziness, low productivity and an easy ride for many news reporters and related staff.”
Sapa editor Mark van der Velden has declined to be drawn into the mud-slinging that has erupted since the April 4 cut-off. He has answered all of Mthombothi’s allegations with facts, and declined to respond to the rest which he labels “unsubstantiated opinion”.
The negotiations process, M&G has learnt, was kept from the SABC rank-and-file, many of whom had not even been informed at the time of the on-going negotiations nor the services’ cut-off. The SABC said prior to the contract’s expiry last September that it could not pay the 1996/97 fee of R1,775- million, nor the cost-based increases which would push it to R1,9-million for the next annual period.
The SABC responded with an offer of R1,2- million. To this, Sapa, considering the broadcasters dire financial crisis, offered a revised fee of R1,6-million. This was also rejected.
Sapa’s board put an offer on the table of R1,29-million for April 1 to March 31, 1998, on condition that a second year (from April 1998) be incorporated into the contract. The SABC accepted the first half but not the second – even though it was not a split offer and was less than the broadcaster had paid previously. After no resolution, the service was terminated.