The SABC has denied it is ‘getting rid of white faces”, saying it abhors racism and racial profiling. The broadcaster was reacting to reports that it would axe members of its white staff to comply with Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) regulations that came into effect last week.
The SABC says nowhere in the conditions does it stipulate it should get rid of white presenters. The changes in the regulations which came into effect on March 23 mean that channels and stations across the SABC have had to adjust their viewing schedules, introduce new programming, and generally provide more local content.
The licensing process, the SABC says, is meant to ensure better programming across all genres such as sport, news, education, entertainment, culture and the arts. This is to ensure that SABC meets its public mandate. ‘This mandate in brief, is to reflect programming that matches South Africa’s cultural, language and religious diversity, without compromising quality and audience positioning,” spokeswoman Lesego Mncwango says.
SAfm is currently interviewing for replacement talk show hosts. No changes have been announced. But two weeks ago arts and culture presenter Fiona Ramsay announced she was leaving the station.
Last week Mncwango said: “Various changes are being made to SABC radio station line-ups to accommodate ICASA’s licence conditions.”
5FM says the changes at the station are not related to the ICASA factors.
Station manager John Langford and morning jock Mark Gillman recently announced they were leaving the station.
‘The changes are rather a combination of personal decisions, career opportunities and non-renewal of contracts related to 5FM’s new (re)positioning that started approximately two years ago,” a statement from the station said.
The draft Information and Communication Technology Charter says that companies in the industry should have 50 percent of black people in senior management positions and 65 percent in other management positions.
The ICT charter document was handed to the Cabinet via Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and was approved in June 2005 as a document to guide the BEE activities in the industry. The charter’s steering committee is waiting for the gazetting of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Code of Good Practice before finalising the draft charter. ‘We are hoping for the charter to become legislation once the process is complete,” says Gabrielle Erasmus, a spokesperson for the charter’s steering committee.
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