Veteran journalist and former head of South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news Pippa Green has turned a harsh spotlight on the SABC’s editorial culture, noting that it sometimes degenerates into “a political grazing ground for the ruling-party faithful”.
“The nub of the problem lies deep in the institutional culture, which, despite numerous changes in executive leadership, has not changed much. This culture affects editors’ and reporters’ ability to investigate stories and break new ones,” she said in a paper published this month in the Harvard University’s Nieman Reports.
Green’s comments follow a series of controversies at the SABC, particularly surrounding managing director of television news Snuki Zikalala. They include the canning of a documentary on President Thabo Mbeki and allegations that Zikalala has blacklisted the use of outside commentators critical of the government.
While the focus is often on the SABC at national level, the regions require greater scrutiny.
James Barkhuizen, regional editor of SABC news in the Free State, and Hlauli Motsoeneng, executive producer of current affairs, have been put on forced leave pending an investigation after being involved in a brawl last month.
Sources inside the SABC said a recent punch-up between the two staffers in the corporation’s Free State newsroom underlined the intense pressures on journalists as a result of political interference.
They said the two were arguing over Barkhuizen’s opposition to a live broadcast of the entire inauguration ceremony of a mayor in the region. Motsoeneng allegedly told Barkhuizen the mayor had paid for the broadcast.
Barkhuizen is said to have frequently questioned Auckland Park’s instructions. Sources said he was not allowed to cover issues such as farm murders and stock theft, though black staff believed he focused too often on these issues.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the two journalists had been suspended because of “problems in the newsroom”. He refused to give details. Motsoeneng was unavailable for comment and Barkhuizen refused to comment pending the outcome of the investigation.
Green’s paper particularly focuses on the role of regional managers, installed three years ago by SABC head office with authority over regional editors and a mandate to be SABC “ambassadors” in the provinces.
“The instinct of managers in the head office of Johannesburg, and their proxies in the provinces, is often to soothe the feelings of the local big fish,” she writes.
They weaken editors’ ability to provide accurate, fair and lively coverage of current affairs.
Green said the regional managers were given no staff and tiny budgets, yet were paid big salaries and given generous car allowances. After they were installed, “a measured campaign of interference began”.
“It started in the far north when the regional manager would wander into the newsroom at deadline and reassign reporters already working on stories,” she writes. “A provincial Cabinet minister might be having a cocktail function or perhaps a prominent businessman — ‘go and cover that’, he’d order a junior reporter.”
When Green told the manager to stay out of the newsroom, he replied that he was “CEO of Limpopo” and could do as he pleased.
Green also said that reporter Mandla Zembe had got into hot water at the SABC last year for reporting on the stoning of KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele at a rally and the pro-Zuma sentiment of the crowd.
“About an hour before the main TV news bulletin, a senior SABC manager in Johannesburg called me,” Green recalled. “He demanded that I ‘discipline’ Zembe for his inaccurate reporting. Premier Ndebele had complained after the radio reports aired, claiming that he had neither been pelted with objects nor driven from the stage.”
The regional manager told Green he had promised Ndebele airtime on a current affairs show on the Zulu-language station, Ukhozi, to set the record straight, as well as prime time on TV.
“The risks for regional editors and reporters are significant, and thus it requires courage for journalists to speak out against these intrusions into their work,” she concludes.
Kganyago denied that regional managers were interfering in editors’ work and that there was political interference inside the organisation.
“Despite sometimes hysterical accusations levelled against the news division, the only agenda that is followed is that of providing public service broadcasting to all the citizens of our country,” he said.
Kganyago said SABC News had commissioned independent research company Plus 94 to conduct a survey, which had found that on issues of credibility SABC scored a 95% rating for radio news and a 94% rating for television.