Blade Nzimande delivering a keynote address during the launch of the SACP's 'Red October' campaign | Image: Twitter/ @SACP1921
Speaking during a public lecture on Cuba and Latin America at Unisa’s main campus in Pretoria on Friday, ANC secretary general Ace Magashule and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande both commented on the perceived blackout of the ANC on SABC news platforms.
According to City Press, Magashule hinted that it was time the governing party took control of the SABC.
“It is amazing because our friends throughout the world are asking us a question: how are you governing? Why do you call yourself the governing alliance when you are not in charge of the public broadcaster?” said Magashule.
During his own speech, Nzimande responded “let’s put pressure, comrade Ace, on the SABC. We can’t be having a poison that we are given every day about Venezuela and Cuba and sit and keep quiet and say that we have a public broadcaster.”
Nzimande went on to qualify his statements by saying that his utterances were a critique in an academic platform and not an attack.
The SACP general secretary further critiqued the SABC’s coverage of Cuba and Latin America, stating that it was tainted by the bias of the news agencies they aggregated the news from. He recounted having listened to an SABC radio news broadcast that he claimed aired a report about Venezuela without calling the South African ambassador to Venezuela for comment.
Nzimande further chastised editors who he pre-empted would cry “freedom of expression.”
“Don’t tell us you have freedom of expression. We know that. It is the struggle of the people of this country who brought that very same freedom… but, you owe us. You have that freedom because of the sacrifice of the Cuban people. So be fair to the Cuban revolution,” he added.
This comes almost a month after a visit to the public broadcaster by ANC head of elections Fikile Mbalula where he met with SABC news bosses and accused them of a “clampdown on ANC campaign activities.”
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has come out in support of the public broadcaster with MMA’s William Bird stating that there is no evidence to support the ANC’s claims against SABC News.
READ NEXT: ANC rejects allegations that it tried to ‘bully’ the SABC
(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho)
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