That Big Debate drama

It was somewhat of an inconvenience, given the hour of day and it being a Sunday night. One would have thought the broadcaster would have thought of an earlier time slot for such a critical programme. But who are we to ask? Judging by our Twitter interactions, it was a popular programme that many not just found necessary, but relevant. Those leading us were called to account and the underdogs had a platform to vent.

I wondered how long the SABC would keep this show alive, and it was not long before the inconvenient truths became too inconvenient to the powers-that-be. The last series ended in April and it was to be the end of The Big Debate. The second series was to begin last week, but it has since been canned. The official word from the SABC is that current-affairs is not an outsourced service and that the programme was incorrectly commissioned. The SABC insists that the editorial oversight was compromised.

The lights go out

Ben Cashdan, the Executive producer of the show, says he received communication from the commissioning editor who indicated having received an order from the acting COO of the SABC, we assume it is Hlaudi Motsoeneng. In that was an instruction to not continue airing the programme. It was to go on air on 17 October, but independent production firm, Broad-day light Film Foundation, which is a section 21 company, was told the lights were off.

Three years ago, President Jacob Zuma took the bold step of sacking Siphiwe Nyanda as communications minister to replace him with the late Roy Padayachee. I wrote then that Padayachee's biggest challenge would be to deal with the monster that is the SABC. It's a problem child, but a dangerous one as it is a national resource and a key indicator of South Africa's democracy. I said then, which I say again now, despite an entire plethora of independent broadcasters, who are mainly profit driven, SABC News will always be a determining factor of the health of the nation, since it is in fact the face and tempo of the organisation and South Africa.

The disaster

It's unfortunate that Padayachee did not live long enough to see this project through and it is needless to say that he was replaced by the disaster that was Dina Pule, who's only interest in communications appears to have been arranging business deals for her alleged partner and collecting Christian Lourbotini's.

The SABC remains a nightmare with a 24 hour news channel that's inaccessible to the very people for which it's intended. This pet project, launched in August, cost millions of rands.

The Right2Know Campaign has called for protests around the canning of The Big Debate. I doubt it would have any meaningful impact to the powers-that-be, however.

At a broader level, Communications Minister Yunus Carrim has greater challenges with the SABC. The fact that the COO, who is in effect running the show, does not have matric is the least of his problems. His biggest challenge is recognising the fact that we are just a few months away from our fourth democratic elections and that the majority of South Africans will continue to rely on the SABC to deliver news content that's accurate but also seeks to strengthen South Africa's democracy.

I battle to see how that would succeed in an environment where the organisation is bleeding financially, a new board that's still to get its hands around the critical issues facing the organisation, a demoralised staff complement, a hole left by an exiting head of news and current affairs who walked away with over two million rands in a golden hand shake and a CEO who seems paralysed by the powers vested upon her COO, who seems to have the ear of Number 1.

When the public broadcaster appears so debilitated, you know our democracy is at stake.