Grant Pascoe
The SABC is not just another state company. It is the broadcaster that gives all South Africans access to news, sport, culture and education in every language. For millions of poor and rural households it is the only affordable way to stay informed. If it falls ordinary citizens will lose their voice.
Parliament has already warned that the SABC may not survive beyond December, yet the Minister of Communications, Solly Malatsi, has failed to act. Instead of a rescue plan he withdrew the SABC Bill, outsourced the funding model to consultants and allowed the crisis to deepen. The delays raise a serious question. Is this simply weak leadership or a plan to weaken the broadcaster on purpose.
SA Follows Global Patterns of Media Capture
Around the world we see the same pattern. In the United States a handful of corporations own almost all the media. In Britain Rupert Murdoch’s empire has shaped public opinion for decades. In Turkey and Hungary governments and businesses have captured the media to silence critics. When business controls the news it controls the story. The issues that matter to ordinary people are ignored. What reaches the public is what serves the owners and advertisers.
WATCH: The SABC is at a risk of collapse: Khusela Diko
In South Africa corporates are pulling advertising away from the SABC and redirecting it to private and foreign owned groups. Media24 belongs to Naspers. Primedia is run by the Kirsh family. MultiChoice is being taken over by the French company Canal Plus. Independent Media is tied to Chinese investors. Even the Mail and Guardian is owned by a New York fund. A small circle of corporate and international owners control most of the media space and the advertising money that keeps it alive. The SABC is being starved into collapse.
Minister Missing in Action
The minister has done nothing to confront this. Instead he speaks of processes while the broadcaster runs out of cash. He hides behind consultants while a national asset bleeds. His actions suggest he is not protecting the SABC but following a corporate agenda that will leave the space open for private and foreign interests to dominate. If the SABC falls it will not be by accident. It will be because those in power chose to kill it.
