CHAPTER NINE: PERCEPTIONS OF AND EXPECTATIONS TOWARDS THE SABC

The purpose of this chapter is to assess how the public broadcaster is being perceived by various role players in the country and what they expect from its services. A particular focus is placed on their interpretations of the problems besetting the SABC, the causes of the problems, as well as proposed solutions.

The public debate on these issues gained additional momentum when the Minister of Communications gazetted a highly controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill on 28 October 2009. (The bill will be examined more closely in chapter 10.) 

1. Political parties

For reasons of space only the views of the top four political parties are discussed here (that is, the four parties which scored the most votes in the 2009 national elections). Other political parties have also been vocal on – and more often than not critical of - the performance of the SABC. They include the Independent Democrats (ID), the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and - although it is not a registered political party – the ANC alliance partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP). 

African National Congress

The ANC has developed a systematic critique of the SABC since 2002, when it formulated a media policy for its 51^st National Conference. In this policy, the party took a long range view, arguing that the SABC had made great strides in transforming itself from a state to a public broadcaster. However, in the party’s view the commercial nature of its funding base hampered further transformation. The policy argued for the need to establish a publicly funded media system by the year 2012. This model was necessary “in order for the public and community media to serve as vehicles to articulate the needs of the poor, rural people, women, labour and other marginalised constituencies”. 

The party’s critique of public broadcasting for its next national conference in 2007 was not nearly as categorical on the need for a publicly funded media system, although it did reiterate its argument for public funding to be made available for the SABC. To this end, the conference resolved that public funding should be increased from the current two per cent to as much as 60 per cent by 2010, to enable the public broadcaster to fulfil its mandate properly. The ANC also resolved that the SABC should increase its support for local content that is consistent with the values of the Constitution, and that it should focus especially on women, the disabled and the youth.  Furthermore the President should ensure that future SABC boards be broadly representative of the South African population. 

Given the perceptions of close associations between the ANC and the SABC during former President Thabo Mbeki’s term of office, the ANC under Zuma’s presidency has been very vocal in its criticisms of the SABC News and Current Affairs Department, accusing its then-Managing Director Snuki Zikalala of failing to understand the broadcaster’s mandate, and calling for the non-renewal of his contract. His contract was, in fact, not renewed. The Zuma-led ANC also supported the removal of the board appointed by Mbeki in 2007, and their replacement by an interim board to stabilise the operations of the SABC and to restore a measure of proper corporate governance over the broadcaster.

Democratic Alliance

The DA’s main concern with the SABC has been what it perceives to be its closeness to the ANC, rather than a critique of the broadcaster’s funding base, and its impact on the public service mandate. In 2006, the party labelled the broadcaster the “propaganda arm of the ANC”, which it considered symptomatic of a broader contempt of press freedom displayed by the ANC. The DA has criticised executive appointments for being motivated by the ANC’s desire to control the SABC, rather than by a concern for competence.  This, it said, led to skewed coverage in the broadcaster’s news, designed to protect the ANC from embarrassment. The DA also opposed the removal of the 2007 board as a politically inspired power grab by the ANC, while being extremely critical of the performance of the management. More recently the DA has supported the privatisation of the SABC as a solution to its woes, and has opposed the granting of a government guarantee to enable the broadcaster to borrow money. 

Inkatha Freedom Party

The IFP’s concerns over the SABC, voiced through its spokespeople on Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications, seem to be related mostly to the broadcaster’s coverage of the party and the independence of the SABC from government and the ANC. The IFP has attributed the crisis at the SABC to a lack of appropriate financial, technical and human resources, and supported the removal of the 2007 Board on the basis that it no longer commanded the confidence of the entire Portfolio Committee. It has decried political interference in the affairs of the SABC by the ANC, which it felt has been a contributing factor in the crisis. For this reason it has advocated for a truly independent board consisting of media professionals and academics without party political affiliations. 

Congress of the People

Cope has been very active in commenting on the crisis at the SABC since its launch in 2008, and its comments have been largely critical. Press statements have focussed primarily on the extent of the SABC’s independence from the ANC-led government. Initially the party had opposed the removal of the SABC Board, and argued that management should be held to account for the crisis as well, but it gave qualified support for the move later on in the process. COPE has criticised the Public Service Broadcasting Bill submitted for public discussion in late 2009 as an attempt by the ANC to turn the SABC into its propaganda machine, with the new funding model seeking to “…[create] irrevocable dependence on state (ANC) patronage”. The party rejected the trend towards increased taxes on the public, and called for the broadcaster to be funded from advertising, with contributions from the national budget. 

2. Civil society

In civil society, there has been an outpouring of sentiment about the state of the SABC, most of it negative. A sample of views of civil society stakeholders is summarised below:

Save the SABC Coalition (SOS)

The Coalition was formed in June 2008 as a grouping of civil society organisations to respond to the immediate crises facing the SABC, and to encourage civil society to recommit itself to the values of public broadcasting. The Coalition represents a number of trade unions including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the Communications Workers Union (CWU), the Creative Workers Union of South Africa (CWUSA), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA); independent producer organisations including the South African Screen Federation (SASFED); and a host of non-governmental and community-based organisations including the Freedom of Expression Institute, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), the South African Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF); as well as a number of academic and independent experts. 

SOS believes that the SABC is not fulfilling its mandate as a public broadcaster, but admitted that the evidence for this assertion was anecdotal, given that the SABC has not been systematically monitored, as it should have been. The SABC does not meet SOS’s expectations of what a public broadcaster should be, which includes setting the standard for broadcasting in the country, championing local content, furthering the goals of a participatory developmental state, ensuring institutional autonomy as well as editorial and programming independence, diversity of voices, public accountability, and a commitment to universal service.

According to SOS, the most recent crisis at the SABC was precipitated by a complete breakdown of corporate governance, with management and the board contributing to the problem in different ways. In the immediate past under GCEO Dali Mpofu’s watch, expenses had increased significantly, especially consultant and staff costs. The oversight structures had also contributed to the crisis by failing to play their roles effectively; these structures, in the view of the Coalition, include ICASA, the Portfolio Committee on Communications and the Department of Communications.

In order for the crisis to be addressed SOS has argued for the development and implementation of sound financial systems, proper investigations into allegations of corruption, employment of a new GCEO, CFO and Chief Operations Officer (COO), and the organisation of a financial rescue package. It also believes that the crisis cannot be resolved by rushing through legislation, and that the stabilisation of the SABC could be achieved adequately under the existing legislation. Rather, a proper review of the 1998 White Paper on broadcasting in light of all developments over the past decade should take place before developing any new laws. This process would include as a first step a “Green Paper” being published to canvas public opinion. On the basis of such wide and thorough consultation a “White Paper” would then formulate policy, and this, in turn, would inform the bill. 

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA)

MMA monitors SABC content – and has been doing so since 1993 - and is therefore in a unique position to make judgements about the extent of the broadcaster’s delivery on its mandate. 

According to MMA, the SABC is not fulfilling its objectives sufficiently, and although it is providing a range of services, and more local content than other broadcasters, it “has a long way to go in this regard”. Self-censorship is an ongoing problem, according to the MMA, which it attributed to “…a fear of being bold”.  MMA has recognised some innovative programmes such as “Kids News”, but expressed concern about the programme being under-resourced, leading to an over-reliance on adult content. 

The MMA rates the SABC’s performance best in the provision of basic services, such as radio in African languages, as well as local content on SABC 1. The organisation also recognised the SABC’s fair and comprehensive coverage of the April 2009 elections. Overall, it says, the SABC’s news coverage is “a million times better” than it was under apartheid. However, the SABC’s quality of information left much to be desired, and the broadcaster could do more to link South Africa to the continent. 

The MMA has attributed the crisis at the SABC to a “perfect storm” of political upheavals, mismanagement, absence of effective systems and structures, corruption, loss of credibility in the eyes of the public, a failure of oversight structures, and “…a great dollop of greed of the most disgusting order by some of the employees who cared not a jot that they were screwing the public to be rich”.

COSATU 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has been highly critical of political and economic influences on the broadcaster. For over a decade, the congress has argued that the broadcaster does not have commercial independence from advertisers. 

In 1998, in response to the Department of Communication’s proposal to corporatise the SABC, COSATU argued that the SABC was incapable of achieving financial self-sufficiency. Corporatisation would therefore lead to “cherry picking”, with the broadcaster focussing on profitable programming, which would decrease access of marginalised audiences. In 2002, in response to the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, the trade union argued that its earlier concerns had been vindicated as the broadcaster exhibited what it called “rampant commercialisation”, which compromised its ability to achieve its mandate. COSATU noted the poor coverage of labour issues, the pro-business nature of the commentary on economic issues, the inadequate development of local content programming and the failure to reflect South Africa’s cultural and linguistic diversity.  

In the build-up to the ANC’s 2007 conference, COSATU criticised what it perceived to be the broadcaster’s bias towards the Mbeki administration. In a veiled reference to the perceived political sympathies of then-Managing Director of News and Current Affairs, Snuki Zikalala, the body said in its end of the year statement for 2006: “We shall continue to defend the role of SABC as a public broadcaster, not as a player in the political wars that are happening in the Alliance and in society as some of its senior executives want it to be”. Since then, it has been tracking events at the SABC very closely, commenting on a range of editorial matters that it considered to be examples of bias: statements which culminated in its call for the board to be removed on the basis that it was unrepresentative and politically biased. 

Independent producers

The independent production industry has become extremely vocal about the crisis at the SABC, as it has been heavily affected by it. In November 2009 independent producers estimated that the broadcaster owed the sector R60 million in payments for commissioned material, resulting in a number of companies having to lay off staff or even facing bankruptcy. They also accused the broadcaster of cutting back on local content quotas. In a letter to the Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana, the South African Screen Federation expressed deep concern about what it termed an industry depression, and attributed this to the financial and management crisis at the SABC. The organisation has also voiced its unhappiness with the fact that ICASA has not monitored the SABC’s licence conditions adequately, and has not done so for the past seven years. The federation has called for an evaluation of local content compliance and of the regulations, with a view to the regulator increasing these requirements. Another sore point for the industry is what it perceives to be unfair intellectual property arrangements, whereby the SABC claims all property rights, preventing producers from being able to exploit content to compensate for what they regard as low rates of payment from the broadcaster. 

Another very vocal stakeholder in the recent debate is the Television Industry Emergency Coalition, a grouping of independent production companies, including the South African Screen Federation (SASFED), the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO), the Producers Alliance, the Documentary Filmmakers Association (DFA), the Writers Guild of South Africa (WGSA) and the Communication Workers Union (CWU). The Coalition was formed to address the impact of the SABC’s financial crisis on the independent production sector. It has argued for, amongst other things, the following:

• A structural overhaul of the SABC, with a broad review of policy and management, and an end to the appointment of “political Boards”, which, the group claims, has eroded the core functioning of the broadcaster and distorted the management of it;

• The appointment of skilled executive management;

• A review of the terms of trade with the independent production sector, which it regards as biased in favour of the broadcaster (especially its intellectual property arrangements);

• An end to excessive bureaucracy.

On the whole, members of the emergency coalition feel that the SABC is not fulfilling its role as a public broadcaster effectively, and they attribute the problem to bad management and almost non-existent oversight. Head of Communications of SASFED, Marc Schwinges, has argued that the way the broadcaster interacts with the sector is not in the public’s interest, and that producers should have had shared rights long ago, which would have led to higher quality local content. Local content requirements, he says, have not been independently verified and wasteful expenditure and personal enrichment have plagued the broadcaster. The sector also objects to what it refers to as “meddling in independent content streams and internally produced content for political objective … which is hardly appropriate for a public broadcaster”. 

SASFED has argued that the SABC has not built collaborative relationships with relevant role players and that it has not been philosophically committed to a progressive notion of public broadcasting. The broadcaster has also been described as unable to conceive of audiences outside of market prescripts.

A further concern is that the SABC may be setting a poor example for other broadcasters in Africa. This is particularly worrying as South Africa is still widely looked to as the model for public broadcasting on the continent.

SASFED has proposed that the SABC board and management should be committed to the following criteria:

• appreciation of the dynamic, full spectrum role of public television in society and an overriding commitment to public service and the public interest;

• impeccable governance competencies;

• commitment to a co-determining and collaborative role by relevant role players and interests;

• commitment and accountability to a renewed, optimally shared vision of public broadcasting services;

• resolute independence from untoward state, party-political and civil constituency interests;

• a dynamic appreciation of the concepts of public service obligations and development;

• a bold commitment to free and diverse expression;

• unquestioned commitment to local content and independent commissioning regulations;

• commitment to conducive terms of trade with the independent production sector, including money for value and just property rights recognition;

• commitment to a bold, dynamic and visionary commissioning structure;

• ability to effect a credible, competent and responsive management and operational structure.

3. Employees of the SABC

Employee organisations active at the SABC have also made their voices heard in the debate on the state of the broadcaster. The only exception has been the Media Worker’s Association of South Africa, whose public pronouncements have been patchy and confined mainly to wage-related rather than policy issues. 

Communication Workers Union (CWU)

The CWU has 1024 registered members at the SABC, and is a COSATU affiliate. According to the union, the SABC has refused to accept its proposal for a recognition agreement. 

The CWU Shop Steward’s Council feels that “the SABC has become His Master’s Voice for the SACP General Secretary and certain factions of government”. Producers, it says, are instructed to show people who are “aspirational”, and not to address grassroots stories that may show up poor service delivery. The SABC, therefore, is not fulfilling its mandate, “rather it is frustrating the poor by not telling their story”. While it is performing well in producing programmes based on internationally franchised formats, such as “Strictly Come Dancing” and “South Africa’s Got Talent”, it is doing badly on developing innovative local programming. The union has also accused the content hub – the central commissioning unit - of “becoming a haven for deployees [of the ruling party], and people who enrich themselves”, and that it should be disbanded, which will allow each channel to have their own commissioning editors. Furthermore, the union criticised the SABC’s tendency to buy state-of-the-art equipment prematurely, before the technology has stabilised, leading to investments in inappropriate technology. Other problem areas include the loss of assets, sheltered employment of “dead wood” and the existence of corruption.

Broadcasting and Electronic Media Allied Workers Union (BEMAWU)

The union claims to represent over 1000 members in the media sector, particularly in the SABC. While BEMAWU has mostly been active on conditions of employment at the broadcaster, it has also made pronouncements on policy issues. For instance, the union has been extremely critical of the Public Services Broadcasting Bill, stating that between 1200 and 1500 employees will lose their jobs if the Bill is signed into law. This, it says, is because shortfalls in the collection of income tax will have a knock-on effect on the broadcaster, which would be exacerbated if advertising revenue is capped. The union has called for a reconsideration of the Bill’s funding model, and the retention of the television licence collection system with a public funding top-up. The union has also criticised the top-heavy nature of SABC’s management, and has called for cost cutting of wasteful expenditure at this level.

4. Conclusions and recommendations

The findings of this chapter jar noticeably with those of the HSRC research referred to in chapter six, which ranked the SABC the second most trusted institution between 2003 and March 2008. This strongly suggests that the SABC’s credibility has plummeted from 2007 onwards. 

The recent crisis at the SABC has shown that South Africans are passionate about their public broadcaster and there are high levels of civil society mobilisation around the broadcaster. What unites views across the political spectrum, and state and civil society, is the deep unhappiness with the SABC. In fact, it is difficult to find positive views about the broadcaster in the recent public debate. The most positive views were expressed by those organisations that are taking a long range view of the SABC’s transformation to a public broadcaster, giving credit for the fact that the broadcaster had undergone substantial changes in the right direction. Most of the views expressed, however, point to a widely held public sentiment that the broadcaster has undergone a relapse of late. 

There are widely differing views on the causes of this malaise, as well as solutions offered. Many attribute the problems to poor governance, or more specifically bad management. A few organisations such as COSATU, the ANC and MMA have attempted deeper analyses of the reasons why the SABC is not fulfilling its mandate, with the first two concluding that the broadcaster lacks independence from commercial sources of funding. 

The ANC has pursued long range resolutions to change the broadcaster’s funding base: resolutions that have crystallised into the Public Services Broadcasting Bill. Yet a significant blind spot in the ANC’s analysis is its failure to propose measures to enhance the SABC’s political independence. 

Political commentator Adam Habib has argued that it is not coincidental that several parastatals are being wracked by crisis at the same time, including the SABC, Eskom and South African Airways. He argued that the crisis had its roots in the Mbeki administration, which deployed ANC members to parastatal boards, blurring the boundaries between government, supervisory boards and executive management. These deployees, he said, also infused a corporate ethic into the parastatals, where profitability rather than sustainability was the operative word, and development outcomes were almost totally ignored. In his view the collapse of governance at the SABC demonstrates the incompatibility of the corporate model with the mandate of a public service broadcaster. 

Recommendations

• The negative sentiment against the SABC is so prevalent that the broadcaster’s problems cannot be addressed without substantial public involvement. Imposed solutions will simply not work. The Department needs to subject the proposed Public Services Broadcasting Bill to a proper Green Paper/ White Paper process, so that a thorough analysis can be undertaken of the causes of the SABC’s crisis, and evidence-based policy solutions be developed. 

• Mechanisms of public participation in the SABC’s governance and programming are essential. Regular stakeholder forums need to take place with the board, which should be required to meet with stakeholders if a substantial number of signatures are submitted in support of this request. The board should also be required to hold report-back meetings. 

• The ANC is the only political party with a relatively clear media policy, and the policy has been made available for public scrutiny. The party is pursuing these policy positions in its work in Parliament and government, which gives its approach to the SABC a measure of consistency and predictability. The same cannot be said for other political parties. This makes it difficult to discern what they actually stand for in relation to public broadcasting. All political parties should be enjoined to develop media policies that include sections on public broadcasting so that the electorate can engage with their policy pronouncements on the broadcaster, and hold them to account for their performance in government and parliament.

• As a matter of urgency, the SABC needs to review its intellectual property arrangement with independent producers, to allow them to exploit the content they have produced. Independent production companies can not be expected to continue without income while the SABC sorts out its funding crisis and a collapse of the industry would have disastrous consequences for public broadcasting in the future.