The truth commission hearings into the SABC shed little light on the means and methods of its apartheid years, writes Ferial Haffajee
There were no tears. There should have been. This weeks Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing into the SABC was a tragic affair. Tragic in the revelation of systematic and sanctioned brainwashing; sad in what it failed to reveal.
It didnt call a representative range of people responsible for oiling the propaganda machine or consider the way in which the legacy of the SABC continues to impact on the broadcaster.
The hearing was also tragi-comic in parts.
Producer Bheki Khatide had the audience in giggles with a story about a (white) senior who cut a news broadcast that was filmed in front of an Anchor Yeast banner because the first three letters were ANC! Or Sampie Terblanches tale about how a film was hauled off the schedule because PW Bothas late wife, Elize, saw the advertisement for the film Darryl from Russia and snitched to her husband, who ordered its withdrawal because it mentioned Russia.
In the way of many hearings, it was gratifying to see the once mighty humbled by public scrutiny. But the hearing was only a small bite of a much bigger apple: time dictated that no former minister of information was present, nor a former SABC director general, nor a chair of the board.
Instead Louis Raubenheimer played chief flak-catcher. The debonair man in an expensive suit and chic rimless spectacles now heads SABC3. But before this, Raubenheimer ranked among the Afrikaner elite who ran the SABC. Drawn from the Broederbond, it was Raubenheimer and his ilk who fine-tuned the propaganda machine. He moved up its ranks, distinguishing himself first in radio and then in television. From 1984, he was responsible for scripting the daily Comment, a political opinion slot on radio now recognised as one of the key points in the SABCs systematic propaganda plan.
I would like to state categorically that it was a tragedy that the public was not fully informed of the situation in the country, Raubenheimer told the gathering of SABC staffers and other members of the broadcast industry who had come to the confessional.
Under the bright lights of the SABC studio, which played host to this weeks hearings, the scene looked like a public interrogation, as close to a broadcasting Nuremberg as were likely to get.
He told the audience: The SABC would not broadcast anything that would undermine the government or stoke revolution. Fortnightly stratcom meetings made sure that the SABCs leadership was kept informed of that which could undermine or stoke. Although the broadcasting czars did a fine job of censoring themselves, they operated in a system of institutionalised censorship.
The Broadcasting Act and a journalistic code fleshed out exactly what the SABC would cover and what it would ignore. Raubenheimer provided the list: the SABC was for the free market, structured negotiations with recognised leaders, national reconstruction and reconciliation. It was against communism, socialism, nationalisation, violence and terrorism.
Johan Pretorius who served as political correspondent and later as editor-in-chief, told the hearing that the SABC was an essential part of the governments total strategy to combat the total onslaught. He displayed just how successful the regular military and stratcom meetings had been when he told stony-faced commissioners: I accept full responsibility for any decisions of my own or of my subordinates, adding that our sons were fighting in Angola. The Cubans were there. It was a low-level civil war.
The legacy of the old SABC is going to take many years to shake off. Theres an office in Radiopark, some say, which was the direct link to PW Bothas office. The old speaker which was that link has been retained. The old black and white toilet signs, still fixed to the walls, highlight the workplace apartheid which extended far beyond separate toilets.
The poor training policies mean staff still struggle to catch up and compete effectively now that the SABC has competition. People like Raubenheimer continue to work there forming a necessary bridge between old and new.
But with a history which is still in such sharp focus, the absence of SABC chief executive Zwelakhe Sisulu and his sidekick Enoch Sithole this week was glaring. We decided against making a submission. We cannot answer for our predecessors, said Sithole. But the SABCs recent past has bearing on its present.
Former board member and media analyst Dr Ruth Teer-Tomaselli says: You cannot plan the future without understanding the past. There are many questions about the SABCs past which its new managers need to find the answers for. They are the custodians of institutional memory, says Teer- Tomaselli. She complains that the SABCs archives are scanty and that nobody has a complete set of annual reports dating to 1936.
The SABCs official history, written after the new order had taken office, shows a similar amnesia. It is pure gloss, highlighting the SABCs sterling radio coverage of World WarII and the glorious beginning of television in 1973.
Then it skips the whole period of propaganda and takes up again with the changes of the early 1990s. Seventeen years ago, the SABCs Broadcasting Centre was rezoned into a separate municipal area and for many years it broadcast in a world of its own. The hearings this week shed little light on that world somebody must if the SABC is to take up its place as a true broadcaster for the public.