TRC Final Report

Volume 4

Chapter 6

Subsection 1

■ THE BROADCAST MEDIA

15 The SABC enjoyed a monopoly within the country and was thus the main focus of the hearings on the broadcast media. However, the activities of BOP TV and Radio Freedom were also briefly considered.

The SABC

A tool of the government

16 Before the hearing, two senior broadcast consultants, Hendrik and Christel Bussiek, conducted a number of interviews with people who had either worked at the SABC in the past or were still working there. These interviews confirmed the finding of monitors who had, over the years, claimed that the SABC was, essentially, a tool of the government.

17 For example, content analysis by Professor John van Zyl over a period of sixteen years revealed a distinct bias at the SABC. According to his analysis, news bulletins maintained and cultivated a mindset amongst white viewers that apartheid was natural and inevitable. SABC programming, he found, was instrumental in cultivating a “war psychosis”, which in turn created an environment in which human rights abuses could take place.

18 Another witness at the hearing, the former SABC news anchor-man Johan Pretorius, elaborated on just how deeply he felt the government was involved:

The minister responsible for SABC had to report to Parliament; the State President appointed the SABC Board, which in turn appointed the Director General as Chief Executive Officer. The Board determined policy. For example, the SABC supported the view that there could be no negotiation with leaders or parties who used violence to achieve their political aims, therefore the SABC would not provide a platform for these people to air their views.

19 Pretorius added that the SABC had distanced itself from the so-called ‘new order’ media, which were in constant confrontation with the state. The perception given was that South Africa was the target of a revolutionary onslaught, and that the SABC had to fight this with all the means at its disposal.

20 Former head of SABC documentaries, Don Briscoe, claimed to have provided “a very balanced output of programmes showing the country’s military preparedness”. Briscoe appeared to be unable to see that his programmes had promoted the government’s determination to protect its privileges at all costs, thereby serving as an incitement to greater violence in South Africa. Briscoe said that this had not occurred to him at all.

21 Pretorius’ comment on the politicians of the day was that they had a “totally naive, simplistic, and one-dimensional view of broadcast journalism” and that this was particularly pertinent to television.

The NP politicians confused publicity with news value, and the other way around, when it suited them. They were virtually paranoid about what was termed exposure for subversive elements or exposure for political opponents to the right.

22 Despite protestations from people who worked for the SABC under the previous regime that the then government did not misuse the SABC, there is much evidence to refute this. In their research into the SABC’s activities and role under the NP government, the Bussieks concluded:

The SABC generally took a conveniently simplistic attitude towards what amounted to deliberate distortion and suppression of facts in its coverage of unrest, defiance and resistance. Most interviewees, when asked about their assessment today, start out by referring to the conditions of the broadcasting licence as published in the Government Gazette of June 15, 1979, which stipulated that the “Corporation shall broadcast nothing which may inflame public opinion or may directly or indirectly lead to any contravention of the law or may threaten the security of the state”.

23 Professor Sampie Terreblanche, an SABC Board member from 1972 to 1987, confirmed this conclusion. He said that the SABC not only acted as the propaganda arm of the NP, but of consecutive NP administrations. Every new prime minister, he said, had a new approach and a “need to legitimise himself, to justify his position of power”. The SABC was repeatedly used to play this very important role.

24 Tseliso Ralithabo, who is a current staff member of the SABC and a member of the Media Workers of South Africa (MWASA), said it was not possible to justify what he called the “atrocities of the SABC”. He countered the assertion of a fellow staff member, Louis Raubenheimer, that the SABC was “independent”. One could still find, he said, archive material produced – for instance by Cliff Saunders – which had first been handled by government officials before it went on air in Afrikaans and English and was then translated into black languages.

25 The most telling confirmation of the SABC’s role under apartheid came from an unexpected source. State agent Craig Williamson told the hearing that a “special relationship” existed between the SABC and the intelligence community’s units for STRATCOM. The state, he said, was at a disadvantage because it did not own or control any credible print media. It counteracted this by its use of radio and television. Williamson also pointed out that the SABC was used at the time of the cross-border raids to present the attacks in a positive light.

Broederbond influence and control at the SABC

26 Different factions and personalities within the ruling party held sway at the SABC at different times during the period under review, but the influence that exerted the most control was the Broederbond. SABC staff and former Board members played down the role of the Broederbond at the SABC claiming, amongst other things, that they were never required to attend any Broederbond meetings and that they were not directly or indirectly approached by the Broederbond. There is, nonetheless, no evidence to suggest an amendment to the findings of the Bussieks, who noted:

With most of the Afrikaners on the Board being Broeders, as well as most of the top-level and many other mid-level managers, there was probably no need for any such direct interference. If not Broeders themselves, most of the people in charge were Afrikaners or Afrikaans-speaking. A look at management positions over the years shows that career possibilities for English speakers were extremely limited.