Thanks, Jimi, this is good for you and the broader SA

28 June 2016 - 10:02 By The Times Editorial

The wheels are coming off and the driver seems content to continue on his journey to the unknown. Yesterday SABC's acting group chief executive Jimi Matthews resigned, citing a "corrosive atmosphere" inside the broadcaster.Matthews joins a long list of staffers who are not prepared to stomach nonsense and take the public broadcaster on a wrong path.The broadcaster's chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who has a final say on anything editorial, has for months now found comfort in apartheid policies to muzzle the truth in favour of sunshine news that projects South Africa as a haven and the ruling ANC as the beginning and the end.Motsoeneng believes that broadcasting violent images on TV is not only bad for the image of South Africa but actually encourages citizens to misbehave.This is the same rule that was used against liberation movements in the past... the same attitude adopted by the National Party when it controlled the SABC.Those rules and attitudes not only projected liberation movements as terrorist groups, they also silenced critical voices in favour of those who defended the apartheid state.Now, in 2016, the SABC under Motsoeneng and the ANC under Jacob Zuma are content to shut down editorial freedom.With Communications Minister Faith Muthambi telling us that "Motsoeneng is simply the best", we shudder to think what President Jacob Zuma thinks of him.Today, South Africa is at a stage where personality cults are more important than a person's positive contribution to a better state.It is concerning that the ANC, which fought hard to achieve media freedom, remains silent as Motsoeneng goes about destroying its honourable and proudhistory.The behaviour at the SABC is supported by a faction that wants to control what we see and hear. But now that voices of reason are being heard, we hope sanity will finally prevail at the SABC...

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