IFP demands equal coverage
2012-09-14 14:13
Johannesburg - A group of IFP supporters marched through the Johannesburg CBD to the SABC studios in Auckland Park, Johannesburg on Friday to demand equal coverage for all political parties.
Led by Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the group was to hand over a memorandum of understanding to the public broadcaster.
"We demand equal coverage for all political parties", read their posters.
Others said, "We also pay our TV licences". Buthelezi was expected to address the hundreds of protesters when they arrived at the SABC's offices in Auckland Park.
Shops, hawkers and banks closed their doors as the demonstrators passed through.
IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said he had had enough of the public broadcaster operating as an "ANC and government station instead of a public broadcaster".
"A multi-democracy shouldn't work like this... We want an end to this political conviction," he said.
An IFP supporter, who identified herself as Ndumiso, said: "We call the media when we have events but they are never there, but when there is trouble [with the ANC], they are the first to come running."
Dressed in IFP T-shirts and wrapped in clothes depicting a picture of Buthelezi, some of the men waved sticks and shields in the air and engaged in song.
"Down with the SABC, down!" the group chanted as it made its way to the SABC.
The state broadcaster was in the news this week following a statement by an SABC union that former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema - a vocal critic of President Jacob Zuma - has been banned from the airways.
"Malema was never beaten up as a child, which is why he is disrespectful," they sang in Zulu.
- SAPA
