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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
South Africa
By William Gumede and Goodman Chauke
Gumede is Chairperson of MISA-SA. Chauke is the MISA-SA’s Media Officer.
The South African media had a rough time in 2002. The media often
came under severe fire from politicians and government officials ac
cusing it of being “unpatriotic”. Former South African President Nelson
Mandela encapsulated this sentiment when he spoke on the popular Tim
Modise radio talk show in April. He accused the media of being unpatriotic
by focussing too much on crime in their reporting and not appreciating what
South Africa had achieved. He also argued that the kind of reporting coming
out of South Africa had caused investment flight.
The independence of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
was a big issue. The public broadcaster was plunged into controversy when
Barney Mthombothi, its chief executive for news resigned on July 3.
Mthombothi, one of the South Africa’s most respected journalists, had a reputation
for independence.
The SABC’s board and its chief executive were quick to quash speculation
that Mthombothi fell out with senior ruling African National Congress government
leaders and the management of the broadcaster who were allegedly
“unhappy” about his editorial decisions. Although Mthombothi declined to
discuss the reasons for his departure, sources within the broadcaster said the
“last straw” was Mthombothi’s sanctioning of the showing of an unedited
video exposing corruption at Bloemfontein’s Grootvlei prison.
The controversy around Mthombothi’s departure had hardly died down when
the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the largest trade union
federation in the country, marched on the SABC on September 24 urging the
“speeding up of transformation” at the public broadcaster. Cosatu was aggrieved
at the SABC’s alleged bias against “blacks, the poor and the working
class”. The trade union federation also complained that the SABC has “done
nothing” to promote minority languages in the country. Cosatu spokesperson
Vukani Mde said the SABC was under the control of business interests.
However, probably the fiercest debate around the independence of the SABC
was sparked by the introduction of the controversial Broadcasting Amendment
Bill by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri in July. The
bill stipulated that the SABC board should fall under the direct control of the
Minister of Communications, sparking fears among media organisations that
the SABC would lose its independence. The Media Institute of Southern Africa
[MISA-SA] strongly argued for the need and importance of an independ-
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