SABC: THE NATION’S OPPRESSOR

Somila Nkosana, Wayne Boonzaaier and Natasha Mabuto

01 July 2016

Today journalists from Cape Town gathered in Sea Point in front of the SABC building to conduct a peaceful protest raising their opinions regarding the recent changes that are leading to censorship.

Amongst the protesters was Right2Know activist Murray Hunter, who said “We are here because (of the) crisis, the SABC has been mounting is affecting all of us. 

We’re at the point now where we need to recognize how it’s affecting SABC workers as well.

We know journalists have been suspended, there’s a potential of dismissals (and) there’s a climate of intimidation that’s been growing at the public broadcaster.

So there reason why we are gathering here and many people are journalists, some are media freedom activists, some are members of the public (and) we want to send a message to the working SABC journalists to tell them that you’re our journalists and we support you and we want a public broadcaster that is serving the public and that is transparent and that tells the news not Hlaudi’s kingdom”

Joining the protest to was Erna Curry media assistant at SADSAWU (South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers' Union) and she said “I’ve come today to support our journalist and also to support change with our public broadcaster the SABC and it’s there to serve the people.

So what is happening there is wrong, the big salaries and the suspension of journalists.

Journalists play a big role, they are there to tell us what is happening in the world to tell all our stories so it’s very important for us to stand up for our rights , people died for our rights and now it’s time to draw the line and that’s why I’m here.”

Also present was Masonwabe Sokoyi, Provincial spokesperson of the South African Communist Party, and he said “We are here in solidarity with the workers that have been suspended but again besides that we have seen in the last few months there a lot of policies that we as the SACP have voiced our own concerns (about) that they’re not doing good for the people because SABC is a public broadcaster.

 

That includes the changes to the policy that blackout all the violent protests because we believe that news is news whether it’s good or bad.”