An inquiry has found that South African Broadcasting Corporation’s head of news Snuki Zikalala has broken the broadcaster’s own code of conduct, media analyst Anton Harber wrote on Wednesday.
Writing in Business Day, he said the report on the outcome of the probe cited at least eight incidents where Zikalala had transgressed.
It concluded he did so by not using certain commentators and analysts for reasons that were not ”objectively justifiable”.
The inquiry also found that Zikalala made a misleading statement when denying the existence of a blacklist which banned certain analysts.
The commentators included political analyst Sipho Seepe; William Mervin Gumede, author of Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC; political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi; and Business Day political correspondents Vukani Mde and Karima Brown.
All of the commentators are considered to be outspoken and generally critical of President Thabo Mbeki.
Harber said his information on the contents of the report came from two people whom he said 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.
A commission, comprising former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus, was set up by the current SABC management to investigate the matter. This came after allegations that Zikalala had ruled certain commentators and analysts should not be used on air because of their political views.
The commission handed its report on the matter to SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu last week.
The SABC’s board has stated that the broadcaster’s mission is to act as a conduit of ”development” information to the public. Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago, at the time, denied that a blacklist existed, but was contradicted on-air by SAfm presenter John Perlman. The matter caused a storm with other SABC journalists confirming the existence of the blacklist.
Zikalala also denied that such a list existed, but said that he was drawing up regulations to guide the use of analysts.
The SABC was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday morning. – Sapa