The Inkatha Freedom Party on Thursday asked whether South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) spokesperson Paul Setsetse had received intensive training from Zimbabwe’s Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo.
IFP spokesperson Suzanne Vos asked this after the SABC refused, on Wednesday, to meet with the Democratic Alliance to discuss its election coverage policy.
Setsetse said the request — which the SABC learned about through the media — was ”irregular, unacceptable, and an attempt to interfere with its editorial independence”.
Vos said Setsetse’s latest statements are proof that he is the wrong man for the job.
”For Mr Setsetse to see this request as a ‘veiled threat to the independence’ of the SABC is laughable,” she said.
She said it is common practice worldwide for public broadcasters to meet with representatives of competing political parties to discuss their election coverage and multiparty debates.
The SABC board must urgently review the image Setsetse is portraying.
”For instance, he recently told the country that the SABC had to ‘compensate’ for the ‘Mbeki-bashing’ that other media gave [President] Thabo Mbeki.”
She said it is clear that the broadcaster is taking instructions from the Government Communications and Information System and has been told to cover African National Congress events, dressed up as government-meets-the-people events.
Mbeki’s planned visit to KwaZulu-Natal to highlight government successes will be broadcast by the SABC during a one-hour slot on South Africa’s largest radio phone-in show, Ukhosi FM.
”All this before the announcement of the date of the election. How clever! How devious! How undemocratic! How Moyo-esque!” — Sapa
SABC gives DA cold shoulder