ANC Spokesman Chides SABC’s Hlaudi, Says ANC Knew Nothing of Policy Change

The ANC’s key person for communications affairs, Jackson Mthembu, led a fiery media briefing on Tuesday to discuss possible censorship at the SABC, where he laid into COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng, said the ANC was meeting with the minister responsible for the SABC on Monday, that the SABC lacked the proper leadership and was in crisis, and that the ANC had not asked to be put in a good light by the public broadcaster.

Here are some of the comments by Mthembu, who is head of the ANC’s subcommittee on communications and the party’s recently appointed chief whip in Parliament:

• “The decision of the SABC to desist from showing images of the destruction of property (reportedly taken by COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng) has not been consulted with or condoned by the ANC.”
• “This (lack of consultation) is worrying as it amounts to change in policy of governing party…therefore if you want to change policy and don’t consult us, that shows serious disregard for the governing party.”
• “We (the ANC) are able to represent ourselves…therefore we don’t need proxies at the SABC. As a movement, we fought for a public broadcaster with a public mandate. There is no way that the ANC can infringe on the public mandate of the SABC.”
• “We (the ANC) never said censorship is good for anyone…. I would never support any censorship.”
• “There is nobody in South Africa who needs somebody else to decide [for them] which pictures must they see.”
• “You need to ensure that we have people who know how to run an institution as big as the SABC. You can’t bring any Tom, Dick or Harry to run the SABC.”

• “At the highest managerial level we are lacking. That’s why we keep moving from one crisis to another.”
• “We will be calling for an inquiry into the allegations, which tarnish the ANC,”
• He said the present situation “cannot be allowed to continue any further and can definitely not be allowed to continue in the name of the ANC.”