The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has not yet introduced all the recommendations arising from a probe into its commentator blacklist, the broadcaster said on Wednesday.
”Some of the issues that need attention, we have now addressed them,” said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
However, others took longer to put into effect, he said.
”It’s a process.”
Kganyago would not say which or how many of the recommendations made by a commission tasked to investigate the matter had been introduced.
Earlier in the day, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) Complaints Compliance Committee (CCC) postponed its hearing on the blacklist issue at the SABC’s request.
The hearing came after a complaint to Icasa by the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) about the SABC’s handling of the blacklist commission’s recommendations.
The hearing was scheduled to begin on Wednesday morning.
SABC advocate Azhar Bham asked the CCC to postpone the matter because the legal team had only been briefed about it this week.
The FXI’s complaint was submitted to Icasa in February this year.
Bham said the SABC would be withdrawing its earlier contention that the complaint was invalid because it came too late.
Instead, the corporation needed time because it now wanted to file what he described as a ”substantive reply”.
The FXI opposed the SABC’s request, saying a postponement it would make the process ”absurd”.
FXI advocate Muzi Sikhakhane said the SABC could not explain why it had not sought legal advice on the complaint until this week.
Kganyago said he could not comment on why the corporation had only sought legal counsel for the matter at the last minute.
This happened because of ”internal issues” that could not be revealed to the media, he said.
”I don’t want to go there and these are not the issues I want to deal with.”
FXI director Jane Duncan reacted with disappointment to the postponement.
”Justice delayed is justice denied,” she said.
”We think that the longer this matter drags out … the climate of impunity that we see prevailing at the SABC will continue.”
She said FXI felt that it had been ”treated shabbily” by the SABC.
The SABC’s delays in obtaining legal counsel seemed ”yet another sign of chaos inside the SABC”.
The commission to investigate the matter was set up last year. It comprised former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus SC.
This came after it emerged that the SABC’s news division was not using certain commentators and analysts because they were critical of President Thabo Mbeki.
The commission concluded the SABC had indeed blacklisted certain commentators and analysts — although not officially.
In its report, completed in October 2006, the commission requested the introduction of various remedies.
The FXI has asked the CCC to enforce the SABC’s licence conditions and underlying statutes by investigating, hearing and making a finding on the complaint. — Sapa