DA calls for Hlaudi axing

The Democratic Alliance’s cries for a “people’s broadcaster” echoed against the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) building in Aukland Park today, 28 June, where leader Mmusi Maimane called for the axing of COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

This comes after three SABC journalists were suspended, the Acting Group CEO Jimi Matthews resigned and three more senior journalists called for a meeting with Motsoeneng to discuss the recent developments that they say have heightened a sense of fear and low staff morale in the newsroom.

It is said that an urgent meeting started at noon at the SABC, minutes before the DA grouped outside Entrance 2 of the headquarters of the public broadcaster.

The party’s leader Mmusi Maimane, City of Johannesburg mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba and spokespeople for the party addressed media and activists about the developments within the SABC, calling it a misuse by the ANC.

The SABC has been under scrutiny from political parties and Media Monitoring Africa after COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng said the broadcaster would no longer view footage of people burning and destructing public property. This call came shortly after it was announced the SABC would broadcast 90 percent local music and content on all of its radio and television platforms.

Maimane said today that if Motsoeneng were the COO of the SABC in 1976, the Soweto Youth Uprising might never have been seen by South Africans.

“We are doing this for the journalists working for this organisation. Too many people died for the freedom of the press. This is not a state broadcaster, it’s a people’s broadcaster,” he said.

Maimane called the picket for the COO’s axing a struggle not against Motsoeneng, but a struggle for freedom.

#DA outside SABC saying 'Hlaudi must go' @NewsNMT @Municipality pic.twitter.com/onLVSlvm4Q

— Cllr Chantelle Fourie-Shawe (@cfshawe) June 28, 2016

The SABC’s spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago, has been unavailable for comment since yesterday.