DA moots 'Terror', Zuma debate

2008-10-15 16:45

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - Dene Smuts, who speaks for the Democratic Alliance on communications, urged the SABC to stage a proper debate with the ANC president, Jacob Zuma, instead of tamely allowing him to face an hour-long interview. "For the news value, the SABC should have invited "Terror" Lekota to debate with Zuma," Smuts said.

"Why not stage the debate that former president Thabo Mbeki wants with Zuma about the role that the Nicholson judgment played in his resignation?

"Or the debate with Zuma about his views on key issues of national importance that Helen Zille has on numerous occasions called for?"

Special opportunities

Smuts said the SABC did not exist to provide special opportunities for particular political parties to punt their agendas, and she added: "Given that South Africa's national election is only a few months away, any attempt to provide such special opportunities inevitably creates the impression that the SABC is subservient to the governing party."

She said that South African election campaigns had long been characterised by an unwillingness on the part of ANC leaders to debate with opposition parties.

This meant that South Africans were denied a real opportunity to test their leaders and the credibility of the promises they made, and they were therefore denied a properly functioning democratic system.

"The SABC would be doing its job as a public broadcaster if," she said, "instead of this propaganda exercise, it used its position to foster a national debate."

- I-Net Bridge (News24)