The South African Movement for Equality (SAME) has called on the support of the public in their demand for equitable access to public broadcast media for the census-defined Coloured population group.
This group includes all people who are deemed to be Coloured as defined on census forms irrespective whether they self-identify as Coloured or whether they choose to self-identify as among others, Khoi, San, Khoisan, Bruin, Kullid, Mixed-race, Black or just South African.
An online petition has been created by SAME founding member Charles Ash to address the unequal or non-existent access to state-funded broadcast media afforded to this population group
The petition page shares the content of an Open Letter from Ronald Dyers, SAME chairperson, and is address to The President of the Republic of South Africa, The Minister of Communications, The Chairman of the SABC Board and The Acting Group CEO of the SABC.
It reads as follows...
We, the equality loving people of South Africa DEMAND that the constitutional discrimination against Coloured people by the SABC (South African Broadcast Corporation) be brought to an immediate end!
In a country which prides itself on its progressive constitution and its moral rectitude, it is morally and socially repugnant that a certain group in South Africa is STILL brazenly discriminated against by the state by being denied and excluded from equal access to state funded media.
The fact that the SABC does not have any policy on how to address the Coloured community, neither has it ever had any dedicated broadcast facilities for this group means that in South Africa, equality remains an illusion for some.
Click Here to Sign The Online Petition
While every group in South Africa has dedicated, state funded media facilities including radio stations [Lotus FM (Indians); Radio Sonder Grense (White Afrikaners); Ukhozi FM (Zulu), etc] and TV shows aimed at specific demographics [Eastern Mosaic, Muvhango, etc] the Coloured community is denied equal access to the same.
Did we swap racial apartheid for an equally exclusionary and oppressive cultural apartheid As a result of not having equal access to radio and TV broadcast facilities, the SABC is blatantly violating the Coloured community's constitutional rights to freedom of expression while preaching a hollow message of "united in diversity" and "equality for all".
The rights to freedom of expression for the Coloured community are severely compromised by the status-quo and we, the South African Movement for Equality (SAME), seek the support of all South Africans in making right this grave injustice that has been allowed to go on unabated for far too long.
Failure to address this issue will undoubtedly see another generation grow up outside of the system, thoroughly disenfranchised, disillusioned and stripped of their dignity by being denied a state funded community voice.
SAME believes that the lack of media for the Coloured community is a major contributory factor to the severe dysfunctia which continues to hold the community hostage.
Unemployment in the Coloured community has increased by 5% since 1994; the Coloured community is by far the most incarcerated group in South Africa; the Coloured community has the highest rate of foetal alcohol syndrome in the world, to name a few social ills which continue to plague the community.
These are but some of the symptoms which typify a community that is in dire need of the media tools of empowerment with which to set itself free and assume its space on the South African social scene as equals. SAME is not asking government or the SABC for any special favours, only for equal access to that which is rightfully the Coloured community's, state media.
The continued exclusion of the Coloured community from state media is a sad indictment on all South Africans who value equality and the constitution. Failure to act and rectify this grave injustice is endorsement of an oppressive and unjust discriminatory practise that has no place in our modern, progressive, just and ostensibly equal society.
The South African Movement for Equality (SAME) needs your support in setting this matter right with the SABC and giving the Coloured people of South Africa a much needed voice.
The inclusion of Coloured South Africans in the state's media broadcast offering is a much needed diversification and emancipation of the airwaves which will have many far-reaching and positive spinoffs for all South Africans.
SAME is a Section 21 (non-profit), non-racist, non-political organisation which lobbies for equal rights in the media, business and in technology.
Visit www.same.org.za from your cellphone or PC for more information; join our email mailing list and help us free this country's airwaves once and for all.
We implore you to add your voice to this petition in order that a community long silenced can finally have its voice heard.
This is THE RIGHT THING TO DO!
EQUALITY for All, special privileges for NO ONE!
Issued by The South African Movement for Equality (SAME)
www.same.org.za
Bruinou.com supports the aims of the South African Movement for Equality.
Click Here to Sign The Online Petition