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The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the ruling by Judge Neels Claassen at the South Gauteng High court that there had been widespread manipulation of news under the SABC’s former head of news, Mr. Snuki Zikalala, and that Mr Zikalala had “dishonestly tried to cover up this manipulation”.


The SACP notes with grave concern the criticism and warning laid by Judge Claassen on the Independent Communications Authority’s (ICASA’s) hands-off view of its role as the SABC’s regulator. Which means that “the SABC may with impunity manipulate and distort preparation of its news and current affairs coverage and publicly lie about it when they are caught out having done so”. And furthermore, Judge Classen ruled that ICASA must not only examine programmes once they are aired, but also their preproduction to determine if coverage is free and fair.

As the SACP it boggles us that an institution like ICASA can fail and misinterpret the Broadcasting Act and the then board’s dereliction of duty, as it knew what Mr. Zikalala was doing. And we feel that the board members should also be held accountable for being the conduit of the greater national lie!
 

Mr. Zikalala’s blacklisting of commentators, which by the way included both ourselves as the SACP and COSATU, who were perceived to be critical of the then government, was clearly designed to silence our voices by not allowing us on the air.

As the SACP we called, in our statement issued as long ago as 26 March 2010, for the removal of both Snuki Zikalala and Amrit Manga.

This judgment is a victory for the workers and the poor. Never again should there be manipulation of South African stories and that our people should not be lied to.