The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) came in for stick from various quarters on Tuesday, including from the African National Congress (ANC), for alleged political bias in its news coverage.
United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa complained to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) about the SABC being ”a serial offender when it comes to bias in favour of the ANC”.
In a letter to Icasa chairperson Paris Mashile, Holomisa said that on Sunday he was part of a panel discussion on SABC2 with, among others, the Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party, Independent Democrats and African Christian Democratic Party, on the implications and outcomes of the national convention.
”We were unceremoniously interrupted in the middle of our discussion, and then the SABC crossed live to the ANC rally addressed by Mr Jacob Zuma, where they gave him uninterrupted coverage to pillory the national convention, promote racism [with references to ‘white’ parties and ‘black’ parties], promote ethnicity and tribalism and to spout hate-speech [by referring, among other things, to political opponents as ‘snakes’].”
Holomisa said it happened just as he was pointing out that the SABC ”won’t give any political party other than the ruling party as much as four minutes to launch our election manifestos, but the ruling party will be given hours of live coverage to launch their manifesto, election campaign and closing rallies”.
”On Sunday, the public broadcaster again displayed their bias by interrupting a discussion on a matter of national importance and interest involving a diverse range of political parties in order to cross for live coverage to an exclusive ANC event that was quite clearly timed and planned to undermine the publicity its political opponents were receiving.”
The SABC had a duty to foster multiparty democracy and to equitably air all sides of an issue.
”Especially during times of political change and in the run-up to an election, it is vital that all political views are given equitable representation to allow the public to make informed political decisions,” Holomisa said.
However, the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) said it was concerned over the SABC’s airing of an advertisement by Mosuioa Lekota, ”which is political in nature and seeks to attack the ANC-led alliance and its leadership”.
The advert also ”breached the authority and the regulations” of Icasa, the PYA said in a statement.
”This was done in haste to appease the political allies of Snuki Zikalala, who are in the so-called South African Democratic Congress.
”This is also evident that the reactionary and unpopular SABC board and the entire news team at the SABC are batting for the Shikota outfit, and will continue to disregard basic ethics of journalism and news.
”We will officially lay a complaint with Icasa to investigate this saga of the advertisement and bring to book those who are responsible,” the PYA said.
Meanwhile, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday the SABC board would be in the hot seat over its ”biased” coverage of the emerging party when it faced the ANC in Parliament in two weeks’ time.
”We are complaining about the fact that the SABC had, in the past three to four weeks, been giving a lot of coverage to the South African Democratic Convention and also allowed them to lambaste and attack the ANC, without giving the ANC an opportunity to respond,” Khotso Khumalo, spokesperson for the ANC’s parliamentary committee for communications, told the Cape Argus.
He said the ANC had laid a complaint against the SABC with Icasa on Monday.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago was not yet aware that a complaint had been lodged and Icasa could not be reached for comment.
Khumalo said the ANC was concerned about the disproportionate coverage that the weekend’s convention in Sandton received, compared with the ”scant coverage a much bigger ANC rally received a day later”. — Sapa