To be completed by all applicants for position as reporter/journalist in SABC news department.
NB: The following questions are meant to test your general knowledge and your awareness of today’s South Africa. Answer the following questions as truthfully as you think necessary, keeping closely in mind the overriding need to maintain a proper balance between news value and support for the phenomenal democratic advancements under the ANC since 1994. When you are required to write out answers please use as close to grammatically correct English as you can manage to. Use only a pen. Forms filled in pencil or crayon are not acceptable.
1) What place is now capital of democratic South Africa?
(a) Pretoria; (b) Tshwane; c) Union Buildings; (d) Ulundi; (e) Harare; (f) George Bizos informal settlement.
2) You will use the initials ANC many times in a typical SABC television newscast. What do the letters ANC stand for?
(a) Association of Nepotists and Cronies; (b) Alberton Nudist Colony; (c) African National Congress; (d) Affiliation of Nile Crocodiles.
3) Who is presently supreme head of SABC Television news?
(a) Honourable Comrade Jimi Matthews; (b) President Mbeki; (c) Honourable Comrade Smuts Ngon-yama; (d) President Mbeki; (e) Honourable Comrades of the SABC Board; (f) President Mbeki; (g) All of them.
4) The following is a possible menu for a News at Seven. In what order of importance would you assemble the following news items?
(a) Massive tsunami completely wipes out Australia; (b) Computer error causes United States to drop nuclear bombs on Baghdad, Pyongyang, Teheran and Riyadh; (c) United Nations General Assembly approves motion to close down Israel; (d) China invades Taiwan; (e) A 10 minute report from Dhaka by Miranda Strydom in which she analyses the global resonance and positive effects on Nepad that will come about as a direct result of President Thabo Mbeki being seen shaking hands with the Acting Second Assistant Under-Secretary in Charge of Social Readjustment, Pensions and Disability Grants for Elderly Blind Gay Diabetics in south-eastern Bangladesh. (Fill in letters in order on empty space below. Failure to begin your list with ‘e†will lead to automatic rejection of your application.)
5) Out of the following, who would you expect to find hiding from justice, huddling under a threadbare blanket and attached to a kidney-dialysis machine in a bat-infested cave in the Afghanistan mountains?
(a) Ismael Ayob; (b) Osama bin Laden; (c) Judge Hillary Squires; (d) Truman Prince; (f) Barry Ronge.
(6) The writing of captions is occasionally an important role of TV journalism. In the space below re-spell correctly the following words:
(a) sepirrate; (b) Febbree; (c) confisticate; (d) peeple; (e) buss; (f) Nody; (g) parylice.
7) Who is the current senior political adviser to President Thabo Mbeki?
(a) Dr Piet Koornhoff; (b) Robert Mugabe; (c) NoseWeek; (d) Homer Simpson; (e) Solly’s Discount Liquors.
8) Who is affectionately known in political circles as ‘The Vegetable Womanâ€?
(a) Mamphela Ramphela; (b) Grace Mugabe; (c) Joan Rivers; (d) Manto Tshabalala-Msimang; (e) Elna Boesak.
9) You are faced with the following news story. A group of five awaiting-trial prisoners escape from a maximum security prison by bribing the prison commander’s wife. After escaping they steal a vehicle, drive to a rural area where they forcibly enter a lonely farmhouse. Here they gang-rape and behead an 11-year-old domestic worker and then generally brutalise her employer, an 76-year-old Afrikaans widow, over a period of two days. Before leaving they kill the widow by stripping her naked, tying her to a tractor wheel with barbed wire and driving around a granite quarry. They are re-arrested, brought to trial. After being found guilty and while awaiting what will be multiple life–sentences, a regional court magi-strate grants them bail of R50 each, on the grounds that refusing bail would be a violation of the criminals’ human rights and dignity under the constitution. Who would you approach for comment on the magistrate’s decision?
(a) The ANC Youth League; (b) Mr Xolela Mangcu; (c) David Klatzow; (d) The magistrate; (e) Massey–Ferguson.
10) A special parliamentary committee has been appointed. Its specific brief is to investigate and report on alleged corruption in the so-called ‘Oilgate†scandal. It is revealed that the committee is comprised entirely of radical members of the ruling party. Which of the following headlines to the story would you use?
(a) Controversial but wise appointments to vigilant alleged oil rumours committee; (b) Opposition baffled by government’s transparent attempts to clear up hurtful racist slander; (c) Another Proudly South African committee is born; (d) What You Steal Is What You Get.
11) Who is currently head of the South African Combined Defence Force?
(a) Donald H Rumsfeld; (b) Professor Dan Roodt; (c) Field Marshal James P Ngwenya; (d) Douglas Bader (e) Couldn’t care less.
12) What is the approved SABC News Bulletin ratio of pro-ANC government comment to other comment?
(a) 50/50 (b) 75/25; (c) 90/10; (d) Only when ordered to by the BCCSA.
For official use only
(a) This one looks ill-informed enough; (b) Reject if applicant’s name looks suspiciously male and white; (c) Always check with Joel before appointing.