'SABC run like a spaza shop'

2008-05-07 14:05

Johannesburg - The suspension of SABC news head Snuki Zikalala and CEO Dali Mpofu is long overdue after they brought the corporation into disrepute, the ANCYL said on Wednesday.

"[Zikalala and Mpofu] ran down the SABC like a spaza shop and brought its credibility, image and reputation into disrepute," said the African National Congress Youth League.

Mpofu was suspended on Wednesday for apparently failing to implement decisions of the board.

His suspension came a day after Mpofu suspended Zikalala, the group executive of news and current affairs.

The ANCYL said it would also wanted the current SABC board disbanded and an interim structure put in place.

Acting like state-controlled media

"All is not well at Auckland Park towers. Immediate and drastic action must be taken to restore order and stability."

On Wednesday, the United Democratic Movement said the "fiasco" at the SABC was "a case of the chickens coming home to roost".

Party president Bantu Holomisa said the SABC had been criticised for acting like state-controlled media instead of a independent public broadcaster.

"The fracas involving the suspensions of Zikalala and Mpofu illustrate that as long as board members and senior staff are selected for their connections to the ruling party, there will always be questions of bias and infighting."

Holomisa said the infighting at the SABC appeared to be about replacing people perceived by one faction as being loyal to another faction in the ANC.

"This nonsense of appointing people solely on their credentials as ANC 'cadres' must end," he said. "Surely they have now learnt that it keeps backfiring."

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said the suspension of Zikalala and Mpofu seriously affected the credibility of the corporation.

He said the political change in the ANC of Mbeki to Zuma had rippled to the SABC board and its senior management.

"Everybody is repositioning him- or herself at present and trying to be able to survive in the SABC during the Zuma era."

Mulder said, in the process, "irreparable damage" was being done to the SABC.

"Political subservient appointments are the surest way to destroy [the SABC]," he said.

- SAPA