Cross to the right side, Hlaudi

In an open letter, Zwelinzima Vavi warns the SABC’s chief operating officer he is being used by ’shadowy factional interests’, and asks him to do SA a favour by stepping down.

Dear Hlaudi,

It looks like the SABC is making news more than it is actually reporting! Every day stories emerge indicating that the SABC is in deep crisis, despite the fact that there are voices from your office - and the board - denying these claims.

Of course, South Africans are well known for their denialism ...

It is a very strange situation when the self-evident unhappiness of those who work for the SABC is contradicted by you and your associates claiming that the staff of the SABC are not just happy, they are almost ecstatic.

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Someone, somewhere, needs a reality check, and I have a feeling it's not the staff.

Let me tell you why.

On Friday last week, as the convener of what will become the New Trade Union Federation, we joined a mass picket of the SABC.

Our comrades from the Media Workers Association of South Africa (Mwasa) had informed us that, despite the fact that they had managed to secure a protected strike, workers were too intimidated to leave their work stations in large numbers, although some did.

Worse, Mwasa said they were actually prevented from doing so because they had been locked in by management.

The union has made a strong and effective case for ending the bullying and outsourcing and the use of labour brokers in the SABC and had secured the protection to take action.

In all my years in the trade-union movement I cannot remember a single instance where workers had secured the right to strike but were prevented from doing so because they were locked in.

Your administration certainly seems to be breaking new ground in negative industrial relations if this is the case.

We attended the picket to express our solidarity with the seven respected journalists who have been suspended and are facing disciplinary hearings.

They are effectively being punished because they disagreed with the decision not to report on the protest action by the Right2Know Campaign and the Save Our SABC Coalition right outside the SABC premises.

block_quotes_start Seven million people depend on the SABC for much of their knowledge of the world and the community they live in. They expect and deserve a public service that can be trusted to tell the truth block_quotes_end

The coalition has done so much to make the public aware of what is happening at the SABC. That is the job of civil society, is it not? When journalists are prevented from and punished for reporting on matters on their own doorstep, we know something is wrong.

We also wanted to express our deep concern about policy shifts and especially the much-publicised decision not to report on the violent protests in our poor communities - one of several arbitrary decisions that include barring journalists from reading out newspaper headlines on air, and scrapping media commentary shows.

This seemed to be a brazen attempt at serving the needs of the ANC government in the run-up to the local government elections, to ensure that there is a "good story to tell" through another arbitrary decree - that 80% of news reported on the SABC must be "positive".

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A question arises: what if 80% of the news on a particular day is negative? We now know that these policy shifts were not reported to Icasa, or a full meeting of your own board, or indeed discussed prior to implementation with Jackson Mthembu's ANC national executive committee communications subcommittee. Whether the minister responsible was informed will emerge tomorrow when she meets with the subcommittee.

We were concerned about the future of the public broadcaster, and the growing tendency to apparently sidestep its duty to ensure that it truly reflects the needs of the public. Were the duties and responsibilities as detailed in public broadcasting legislation simply to be ignored or changed?

It was with these thoughts in mind that we assembled at the SABC.

It was there that I decided to call you, from the picket line, and ask for a meeting. After a long wait, the doors of the SABC were unchained and you came to meet us.

Despite obvious tensions, we came to an agreement on certain matters.

You agreed, for example, that you would immediately include Mwasa in your plans to replace temporary workers with full-time staff.

You stated categorically that you did not know the background to the suspensions and disciplinary cases, which were in the hands of department managers, some of whom were present at the meeting but who remained almost entirely silent.

Despite the fact that your professed ignorance of the disciplinary cases was hard to believe, especially given the coverage in the print media and other sources, you did agree that you would investigate and report back to us after the weekend.

You told us that the reason you banned violent images is that certain communities collaborate with certain journalists within the SABC. You claimed arsonists call these journalists and tell them: "Come with your cameras to see us burn infrastructure".

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When we asked you to give us a single example where this happened, you failed.

You rejected the view that the ban on coverage was politically motivated.

When we presented to you our concerns about the abuse of the legislation and the absence of public accountability on broader policy matters, you simply refused to engage. At your insistence, we were asked to return to the SABC for a report-back on Monday July 4 at noon.

On Monday, at 11.35am, you called and said you had decided a further meeting was not necessary.

My brother, if the shoddy treatment of ourselves is an indication of your management style, then can I suggest that you take immediate steps to review it. The SABC is not your or anyone else's personal fiefdom or fish and chip shop.

It is painfully obvious that our society is in a deep political, economic and social crisis. The fundamental task of the SABC is to report what is happening, accurately, fairly and without fear or favour. My brother, you have signally failed to reassure us and the public at large that you are willing or have the capacity to do so.

What is critical is that you remember that you are accountable, and who you are accountable to.

Seven million people depend on the SABC for much of their knowledge of the world and the community they live in. They expect and deserve a public service that can be trusted to tell the truth, however disturbing it might be.

From humble beginnings, you have emerged as the tsar of the SABC, but you are increasingly seen as the person responsible for ensuring that the broadcaster is "domesticated", and acts to protect the vested interests of the powerful. You can no longer be trusted to present a service that is impartial and independent.

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My humble advice to you now is to recognise that you have been used. Be warned that, like so many others, when you are no longer of any further use to the shadowy factional interests that increasingly seek to control our public life, you will be unceremoniously discarded.

You will be expected to take the rap for those who don't give a damn about your personal circumstances. You will join the army of the sacrificed and dejected!

Do yourself, and the people of this country, a huge favour. Step down now, and come clean on what has actually happened. In years to come, you may then be remembered as someone who still has a conscience - just!

Zwelinzima Vavi