Statement: R2K calls on advertisers to boycott the SABC!

The Right2Know Campaign will be holding a National Day of Action in response to the ongoing SABC crisis on Wednesday 28 September 2016. This day marks the International Right to Know Day and we will be observing it by marching to top SABC advertisers and calling on them to pull their adverts on SABC until meaningful steps to address the crisis at the public broadcaster are taken.

MARCH DETAILS:

The crisis at the SABC which is by far the most accessed source of news in the country, is unprecedented, and its effects are not only being felt in content but also its financial well-being. Under the watch of COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the current board the SABC’s financial situation has reached crisis levels. The SABC is expected to post a loss of R500 million this year!

Rampant financial mismanagement is to blame and can be seen in, among other things: the massively inflated salary bill for top management, including Motsoeneng’s 3.7 million pay package which was improperly awarded; the recent ego-stroking “Thank You SABC Concert” that turned out to be an enormous and costly flop; the outrageous monetary ‘gifts’ lavished on artists who sing Motsoeneng’s praises; and the flouting of proper procedures and an advisory panel decision in awarding a dubious and prohibitively expensive contract to a politically-connected production company.

Under these circumstances, to be advertising with the SABC is to encourage gross mismanagement and unlawfulness. We want a well funded public broadcaster with the resources it needs to fulfil its mandate. But funding must be conditional on accountability and transparency. We cannot accept a situation in which the broadcaster is subject to the whims of a petty narcissist who has failed his way upwards and continues to rule with absolute impunity. Hlaudi is where he is simply because he is so eager to lick the boots of his political masters and use the SABC to spin their ‘good stories’. We also cannot accept a situation in which advertisers incentivise failure by continuing to channel money to the SABC, with no questions asked, in spite of the public outcry at Motsoeneng and his cronies’ blatant disregard for the law and the ideals of public broadcasting.

The idea behind TV licenses is that the public fund the their broadcaster and it follows, therefore, that they should be able to hold it to account. In South Africa, unfortunately, too many people simply cannot afford TV licenses and license payments only make up a fraction of the SABC’s budget. But a huge portion of the budget – over four fifths – comes from advertisers. And as consumers and potential customers, we urge the advertisers not to ignore the public will. The public has spoken out loudly against Motsoeneng and SABC management. By hitting SABC management where it hurts most advertisers can contribute to turning the public broadcaster around. We implore these companies to publicly distance themselves from the decisions of SABC management and pull advertising, and to stand with the public and the constitution.

Our demands are, first and foremost, that current COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng must be removed in compliance with the findings of the Public Proctor and the Courts, which have ruled that his appointment was unlawful and irrational.

We further demand the following:

1. An end to the rampant financial wastage and mismanagement of the SABC
2. The scrapping of the SABC’s illegally revised editorial policies which have turned viewers away and further tarnished the SABC’s image
3. That the SABC Board that has enabled Motsoeneng’s reign of terror and patronage be reconstituted on an urgent basis through and open and transparent process
4. That Communications Minister Faith Muthambi be sacked for her delinquency and collusion with Motsoeneng and the SABC Board in unlawfully revising the editorial policies and enabling the continued decay of the broadcaster

We call on unions, civil society, media workers and members of the public to join us in demanding that advertisers stop bankrolling Hlaudi. In the spirit of the International Right to Know Day, which aims to raise awareness about people’s right to access government information while promoting freedom of information as essential to both democracy and good governance, let’s unite and defend our public broadcaster!