“Broadcasting is generally viewed as a business than a public service and this often leads to programming inconsistent with nation-building values. It is therefore our mission to maximise our vision to drive total citizen empowerment through universal access,” SABC acting CEO Gabriel Mampone said.
“The launch of this agency formalises a service which SABC News has been offering on a more ad-hoc basis in the past. We are confident that there is a need for a service of this nature, to provide news and current affairs with a strong African perspective.
“And having established the SABC News organisation as a world-class news service, we are now in the position to extend this offering to other parties,” Mampone added.
Mampone, a head of commercial enterprises, has been brought in to act as a caretaker as CEO Dali Mpofu is suspended by the board ‘for failing to implement its decisions'.
The SABC News Agency will offer content available for sale as raw or packaged video or audio footage comprising the main news coverage of the day, human interest stories reflecting society, sport and arts and culture, and interviews with newsmakers and personalities.
Also included in the package will be text and audiovisual content that can be pre-edited with relevant images and selected natural up-sounds, and many more.
As the continent's leading public broadcaster, the SABC produces hundreds of daily news bulletins for radio and TV, some of which do not get aired due to lack of platform. Therefore, the corporation has pledged to work together with community radio and TV stations, most of which are struggling, employ less skilled people and lack adequate infrastructure and technology.
Through this initiative, a number of jobs could also be created to ease local unemployment and these stations stand to benefit in various ways if the SABC uses their platforms to deliver content to audiences it cannot reach.
SABC board member Bheki Khumalo used the platform to attack the media which he accused of treating the SABC like a convenient whipping boy or girl. “There is a tendency, fuelled by the media - whose natural habit is to hunt in the security of a pack - to see everything that goes on in our organisation as reflecting this or that political personality or faction in politics,” he said.
“Let's me assure you that we will rise about those negative perceptions. We should recommit ourselves to a public broadcaster which is independent of government, corporations and institutions, one that carries the news without fear or favour.
“We have to distance ourselves from the purely commercial, inter or even intra political party squabbles which are such a preoccupation of so much of the media in SA while maintaining our financial and marketing strength and expertise.”
Download Bheki Khumalo's speech here.
For more information on the SABC News Agency, email its manager Lunga Siyo at or call him on +27 (0)11 714 5720, or go to www.sabcnews.com.
