Today, South Africa’s Communications Minister, Faith Muthambi, will respond to a parliamentary inquiry over the turmoil that has been unsettling the nation’s broadcaster.
Recently the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been faced with an intense crisis, resulting in some controversial moves by the company and accusations of it infringing upon media freedoms. These moves included banning violent images and the coverage of protests, the firing of eight journalists (which were later reinstated), being mandated to only air positive news about the country’s president and an announcement that the broadcaster would stop reading newspaper headlines on air.
Since then, many organisations have denounced this conduct, asking the court to intervene while operating officers, like Hlaudi Motsoeneng, tried to distance themselves from taking any responsibility.
Now the Communications Minister, Faith Muthambi, will face a Parliament inquiry about the crisis. In a statement released on Monday, Muthambi tried to detach herself from the turmoil that has been troubling SABC for the past few months. “We deliberately decided not to pursue an interventionist stance as the ministry,” she said. “Our view is that these are, in fact, operational issues which need to be resolved by the board as the accounting authority for the corporation.”
The statement was not well-received among other MPs. “Things are bad at the SABC and Muthambi has been directly involved… she has openly defended Motsoeneng,” said Phumzile Van Damme, MP for Democratic Alliance. “We will be raising all the issues during the meeting.”
The meeting today will hopefully shed more light on the matter, with Van Damme and other MPs asking for the possibility of a full-scale parliamentary inquiry.
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