Political protests outside SABC

Similar events were held by the DA across the country yesterday in cities such as Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. The aim was to highlight the bias in the SABC's television news reporting and to put pressure on the broadcaster to take proactive steps to address the situation, DA MPL spokesperson John Moodey said.

Braving ferocious winds and overcast skies in Johannesburg, protesters enthusiastically chanted, sang, danced and whistled under the watchful and satisfying eyes of the party's city and provincial top brass. Placards read: "SABC News is biased," "SABC vir all die mense nie net vir ANC nie," "Your TV licences fund ANC decrees," "Net nuus geen propaganda" and "SABC News direct from ANC News 100% propaganda".

Joe Seremane, DA MP, told journalists: "Since 1994, the SABC has increasingly toed the ANC government line. Not only is this an attack on media freedom in South Africa, it also constitutes a misuse of public resources and provides the ANC with a massive propaganda machine at its disposal. This recalls the apartheid era.

"The ANC strategy to co-opt the SABC was perhaps most clearly evinced when an SABC spokesperson said on a radio interview during the 2004 election that the SABC had to 'compensate' for the 'Mbeki-bashing' characteristics of other sections of the media."

Hermene Koorts, DA party spokeswoman on finances in Gauteng, added: "Our party stands its ground and asks the SABC to act more objectively - in other words that it broadcast all sides of the story. It must not follow the footsteps of other African countries in their one-sided news approach."

For the past year or so, the public broadcaster has increasingly come under siege from critics, including from various political quarters, who firmly believe that the corporation has lost its way.

Now, it remains to be seen how the corporation will respond to the DA's latest accusations. Apart from its single news crew, no one from the SABC hierarchy was present at the Auckland Park protest.

However, these protests are highly unlikely to change SABC's current policies, as its group CEO Dali Mpofu continues to insist that it is just a routine for people to criticise the public broadcaster.

"Public broadcasters are [in the] public domain, and it is just normal that they should be suspected of siding with the ruling party or the government in place," Mpofu told a gathering of journalists and communicators two weeks ago.

"Nevertheless," he added, "the more the SABC name is debated and criticised, the more robust it becomes."