Privatise the SABC, says DA

It seems no one wants to have the conversation on privatising the SABC proposed by the the Democratic Alliance earlier this month, but that hasn't stopped the party from sharing their viewpoint on the issue.

The DA’s spokesperson on Communications Marian Shinn said in a statement on March 7 that the SABC should “relinquish some of its television and radio channels” in its attempt to salvage “an operational core to honour its public broadcasting mandate.”

In an interview with Times Live Shinn likened the public broadcaster to the fallen nursery rhyme character 'Humpty Dumpty'.

“The SABC’s problems are long term and have been dragging on for years. So much time and money has gone into this problem. What is happening is like to trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again,” said Shinn.

“Privatising is part of the answer. It’s a massive corporation with a great role in South Africa. But the corporation has now been tainted by being partial to the ruling party and plundered by cadre deployment.”

But veteran journalist and media expert, Professor Anton Harber is against privatising the SABC.

Harber said: “A developmental country such as ours needs a true public broadcaster to promote an inclusive national conversation, to serve communities not served by commercial media and to fill non-commercial gaps, such as drama in all official languages and news in under-reported areas.

“I think the SABC’s mandate will be thrown out the window if the broadcaster is privatised. It seems the range of programming broadcast by the SABC is not commercially viable. This content, like education, needs a public broadcaster.”

But Harber did raise the possibility of a sell-off of the commercial divisions of the broadcaster.

Harber agreed that its corporate culture was a challenge for the SABC. He said that priorities include the need for a strong board, the sale of commercial divisions and breaking the broadcaster down into smaller, more manageable units.

Kate Skinner, co-ordinator of the Support Public Broadcasting SOS Coalition also doesn’t think privatisation is the way to go.

“We need to sort out the state’s problems because a public broadcaster is crucial to the country and we shouldn’t give up on it,” said Skinner.

Skinner said the top of the of command for the SABC should be the public and not state.

“The goal should be to create an institution that is not beholding to the state or business but to serving the people,” she added.

“The new board members are steps in the right direction but a COO is still needed. We also need to see a comprehensive turnaround strategy from SABC based on content,” said Skinner.