South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) says the state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), is guilty of news manipulation and propaganda and it will consider a nation-wide campaign against it.
In a statement, DA chief executive officer Ryan Coetzee said on Friday: ”The DA will consider a proposal to launch a nation-wide campaign against the SABC, the purpose of which will be to expose the campaign of propaganda and news manipulation which the so-called public broadcaster directs towards the DA and, in so doing, to destroy what little credibility SABC TV news has with DA supporters in particular and the South African public in general.
”SABC TV in particular has chosen consciously to suppress the full facts of the Tafelsig by-election, focusing instead on an investigation by the Western Cape provincial government into the wife of the DA’s candidate.
”In particular, SABC TV news had minimised or suppressed the fact that the DA took the seat off the Independent Democrats; that the victory was overwhelming, especially in light of the fact that the African National Congress (ANC) stood back to support the Independent Democrat (ID) candidate; that the percentage poll was the highest ever in a by-election in Cape Town; that the implications for the future of the ID and the Western Cape are significant,” said Coetzee.
What SABC news had done was to go beyond bias to active suppression of the news, as it did when it ”lost the tape” of Zuma supporters booing the Deputy President — Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka — off a stage in KwaZulu-Natal last year, said Coetzee.
Coetzee said the press variously headlined its Tafelsig stories as follows: DA wins by a landslide in Tafelsig by-election (front page, Cape Times), ID’s future left in the balance (Banner headline, Argus), ID voters see through De Lille, says Leon (front page, Business Day).
He said any news consumer would be forgiven for assuming that the press and the SABC were covering two completely different stories.
”It is also relevant and part of a persistent pattern that during the negotiations which lead to the formation of the multi-party government in Cape Town, the SABC consciously tried to manipulate the outcome by spiking confirmed stories and consciously running false stories, at the direct behest of the ANC in the Western Cape. The DA knows exactly which individuals were responsible for this.
”The DA is now sick and tired of the SABC. No amount of talking or constructive engagement ever seems to help — at crucial moments, the SABC becomes the voice of its ANC political masters.
”The SABC has ceased to be a public broadcaster and has entered the politics of Cape Town. Consequently, the DA will now consider treating the SABC as a political opponent which has shed any pretence of providing balanced and accurate news coverage, as befits a respectable public broadcaster,” Coetzee charged. – I-Net Bridge