Special Assignment head quits

2007-09-07 12:49

Johannesburg - The head of the SABC's Special Assignment team has resigned from the national broadcaster because he has "lost confidence" in the organisation's leadership.

A statement released by the broadcaster on Friday morning said the organisation had accepted Jacques Pauw's resignation.

"While the SABC acknowledges that Pauw has the right to his opinions, we however do not agree with the reasons given in his resignation letter.

"If Mr Pauw was to retrospect on his own experiences in the newsroom and as executive producer of Special Assignment, with the type of stories they have done and are covering, it is clear that there is no justification for the reasons he has put forward."

The statement did not provide reasons for Pauw's resignation and Pauw himself could not be reached for comment.

The Mail&Guardian newspaper reported that it had a copy of Pauw's resignation letter, and published extracts, one of which said: "I did not intend to resign today, but after the publication of (SABC boss Dali Mpofu's letter to Sanef), I have no other option but to offer my resignation... I take offence against a statement that the SABC is 'not prepared to associate with the enemies of our freedom and our people'."

"It is clear that the SABC has deteriorated into nothing less than a state broadcaster."

The Mail&Guardian also reported that Pauw had said in his resignation letter that it was "false to describe newspapers like the Sunday Times and Mail&Guardian as enemies of our freedom and our people".

'Cultural values'

Mpofu recently sent a resignation letter to the national editors forum (Sanef) charging that the media had behaved "shamefully" in its reporting of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, accused of having a drinking problem and a theft conviction.

"Shame on all of you, especially those who have turned their backs on your own cultural values for 30 pieces of silver, pretending to be converted to foreign, frigid and feelingless 'freedoms'," wrote Mpofu in his weekend letter, made public by SABC.

"We cannot remain quiet while our mothers and our democratically chosen leaders are stripped naked for the sole purpose of selling newspapers," he added.

Mpofu's attack infuriated Sanef, which believed such reports have been entirely justified and made comparisons with the whites-only apartheid era when SABC was little more than a propaganda tool.

Attempts to contact SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago were unsuccessful. It could not be immediately ascertained who would succeed Pauw.

- SAPA