The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will not comment on claims that its head of news, Snuki Zikalala, has been found to have blacklisted certain commentators and analysts.
Business Day columnist Anton Harber wrote on Wednesday that an inquiry had found Zikalala had broken the broadcaster’s code of conduct.
”We are not going to respond to the article,” said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
According to Harber, a report on the outcome of the probe cited at least eight transgressions by Zikalala.
He was found to have not used certain commentators and analysts for reasons that were not ”objectively justifiable”.
”Our processes are on track. We received the report from the commission last week,” Kganyago said.
SABC management set up the commission — under former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus SC — after complaints about a ruling, allegedly by Zikalala, that certain commentators and analysts not be used because they were critical of President Thabo Mbeki.
They apparently included independent political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi; the author of a book on Mbeki, William Gumede; and Business Day staff members Vukani Mde and Karima Brown.
At the time, the SABC reportedly explained that it was going to use analysts only from institutions in future.
The move, in June, came shortly after the SABC ”canned” an independently made documentary about Mbeki, and was criticised for this by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and other opposition parties.
The SABC’s group chief executive, Dali Mpofu, had studied the report and presented it to the broadcaster’s board, Kganyago said on Wednesday.
”When all the processes are finalised, we will come back to the public,” he said, but added this did not mean the report would be made public.
Harber wrote that, among other things, Zikalala was found to have made a misleading statement when denying the existence of an editorial blacklist.
Harber said his information on the contents of the report came from two unnamed people who had read the document. He did not identify his sources.
He said the broadcaster had been sitting on the report ”for more than a week now” and had been debating whether to release it in full or in an abbreviated version.
”I am going to save them the trouble,” wrote Harber, a founder of the Mail & Guardian.
The DA has asked that the commission’s findings be brought before Parliament.
The SABC was scheduled to present its annual report to the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications on October 31, said DA communications spokesperson Dene Smuts.
”The TV licence fee-paying public, whom they represent, insist on receiving the full findings of the inquiry.”
The DA’s request would be discussed next Tuesday, she said. — Sapa