SABC could discipline Snuki

2006-10-22 12:01

Johannesburg - SABC's news and current affairs boss Snuki Zikalala and SAfm journalist John Perlman may face disciplinary hearings arising out of the "blacklisting" report.

Both were asked to give written explanations of allegations against them in the SABC's "blacklist" report, wrote SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu in the City Press on Sunday.

Mpofu said that after the Sisulu Commission of Inquiry into the alleged blacklisting of political analysts at SABC was handed to him, he met both Zikalala and Perlman.

"I told them the commission and the evidence broadly contained a 'case to answer' for each of them," said Mpofu.

He asked both to give him written statements in response to their apparent wrongdoing. Both have done so.

City Press reported that Mpofu would decide within two weeks on whether there was a case against the two.

Zikalala allegedly ordered the exclusion of some political analysts against SABC policy on balanced coverage. Perlman is accused of bringing the SABC into disrepute by contradicting its spokesman Kaizer Kganyago live on air about the issue.

In his article, Mpofu refers to the public debate over the blacklist issue as "a storm in a teacup" and calls it "blood-lust of the right-wing lobby and its fellow travellers in the mass media".

Mpofu wrote that the decision not to publish the report was not easy to make, as the commissioners' recommendations, the public interest and the rights of the accused staff had to be taken into account.

Allegations in the report were not tested and had not been made under oath.

"With our quality of media, this problematic material would feed into a frenzy which would make it virtually impossible to take any corrective or disciplinary action in the second stage which had become necessary on the findings or to conduct any decent process," said Mpofu.

"This battle is not about one or other commentator or a 'blacklist' or Zikalala. It is about wresting control of the SABC, of the hearts and minds and ultimately, of the country, from us barbarians.

"Well folks, it is over for good. The savage natives are in charge, and democratically so.

"The bottom line is that there is no blacklist at the SABC and there is most certainly no crisis."

- SAPA