EFF condemns coverage cut

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema says his supporters should stop paying their TV licences and is reported to have told them that they should march to the SABC where "all of us are going to burn our TV licences in front of the SABC".

The Economic Freedom Fighters says it condemns the SABC's withdrawal of live coverage of the party's anniversary rally at the 11th hour.

According to a party statement, the SABC had confirmed that it would cover the EFF Anniversary rally live on the 24-hour news channel, Channel 404, as well as on an SABC free channel. However...

"The SABC seems only committed to the events of the ruling party. Its major programs only cater for the ruling party. EFF has not managed to enter most of the big shows of SABC television and radio stations with political interference of the editorial and producers' work.

"The SABC is supposed to be a public broadcaster, and serve the interests of the entire citizenry equitably. As things stand, the SABC broadcasts for narrow political interests.

"When the EFF was not in parliament, SABC used to say the allocation of time was based on being in parliament. However, the EFF is now in parliament, still SABC does not want to carry its events live, which is a clear demonstration that this is influenced by narrow politics," the statement concludes.

According to a report in The Citizen, SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said he was not aware of the matter. He is quoted as saying "[[http://citizen.co.za/220373/sabc-broke-promise-eff-anniversary-rally-coverage/ I was not aware that we were going to do any live coverage of [the event]."