The Congress of the People (Cope) accused the SABC of sabotage and ”blatant bias” following the public broadcaster’s blackout on Sunday of the party’s final election rally in Polokwane.
The SABC said it could not show footage of the rally, at which Cope leaders launch a stinging attack on the African National Congress, due to a technical problem.
But Cope’s communications chief Phillip Dexter said on Monday it was flimsy excuse to deny the party airtime while giving extensive coverage to the ANC’s final rally at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg, that was attended by former president Nelson Mandela.
”The SABC has been blatantly biased and used such obvious techniques to firstly change the time of speeches by Cope leaders,” Dexter said.
”Then when Cope obliged and shifted the times of these speeches in accordance with the SABC’s wishes the public broadcaster then claimed to have suffered a technical hitch and as a result zero coverage of the Cope rally was aired on Sunday night.
”Curiously on the other hand, the ANC rally received extensive coverage.”
The SABC finally aired footage of the Cope rally on Monday, ”which is certainly not prime time election viewing”, Dexter said.
”The SABC’s repeated failure to be an objective and even-handed purveyor of the news to the people of South Africa continues as it again knuckles under to the ruling party to the detriment of fair-handedness and democracy in our country.” — Sapa