In his response to a question about the challenges associated with being head of news at the public broadcaster, Snuki Zikalala, then head of news at the SABC, told the gathering of government communicators and journalists that every night, when the clock struck seven, he switched off his phone.
I had deliberately posed this question to Zikalala, who was regarded as being close to Thabo Mbeki, during his tenure as the ANC and the country’s president at the Gauteng provincial government Communicators’ Forum Media Networking Session aimed at building relations between government communicators and journalists.
During his tenure, the SABC was making news for all the wrong reasons, including the banning of political analysts such as the president's brother Moeletsi Mbeki, for being “too critical" to the ANC government. It was under his watch in 2005 that the SABC censored the footage of then deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka being booed off the stage at an ANC Women’s Day rally in Utrecht, KwaZulu-Natal.
The SABC has had a litany of censorship by omission since the dawn of democracy. Like it the Apartheid regime, when it became the mouthpiece for the National Party, there were murmurs that even in the democratic dispensation, it was fast becoming the mouthpiece of the ANC.
As if Zikalala was the worst, enter the fellow from Free State who ruled with an iron fist. His ascendancy to power during Jacob Zuma’s presidency from being a producer at Lesedi FM to being chief operations officer, despite not having the requisite qualifications, proved that censorship under Zikalala was a Sunday school picnic.
His tenure, despite all the pointers that he was not the right man for the job, he caused untold damage and harm under the watch of his masters, from censoring and banning footage of violent protests, canning newspapers' reviews and to mooting the licensing of journalists.
Under his leadership and different board chairpersons, the SABC became rudderless. It made headlines for all the wrong reasons including the sacking of the SABC 8. The story of the SABC is a painful one, it left the broadcaster bleeding financially and also left scars in many staff members, especially journalists. Sadly, the recommendations of the parliamentary investigations into the shenanigans at the SABC seemed like distant memories.
Fast-forward, there was hope that under Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency, the public broadcaster had opened a new leaf with new board chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini and CEO Madoda Mxakwe.
Soon, they got rid of Chris Maroleng as COO and now they have fired Phatiswa Magopeni as head of news and current affairs with immediate effect despite the recommendation by the disciplinary committee that she be served with a warning for misconduct after the broadcaster aired the interdicted episode of Special Assignment.
For the SABC to cite a breakdown in relations with Magopeni in dismissing her, while the SABC board has set up a special committee to probe allegations against Makhathini for all edge editorial interference does not bode well.
There are more questions than answers on the latest saga and we will be watching with the hawk’s eye, taking into cognisance that the SABC was instructed to reinstate dismissed news anchor Palesa Chubisi.
Suffice to say, as much a Magopeni had been found guilty and that she seemed to have “defied” her bosses for refusing to do an impromptu with Ramaphosa, such pressures in the media some disguising as genuine news and some as plain editorial interference happens in the media, it is how they are being handled.
The recent lengthy exclusive interview by political editor Mzwandile Mbeje with ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni left more questions than answers. Truth is, the media, home and abroad, is facing pressures both internally and externally. It is how those in charge of providing us the news react to such. We have seen non-stories make headlines and news worthy stories relegated.
• Sepotokele is a journalist, communication strategist, media trainer and lecturer
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