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In a country such as Zimbabwe, where the media is far from free, still greater reliance than normal is placed on international reporting of the gross human rights abuses that are being perpetrated within our borders. Here, journalists are threatened with arrest and imprisonment under the draconian AIPPA (Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act), accreditation by the regime is required, and foreign reporters and press agencies are selectively banned. Accordingly, Zimbabweans learned of the biased reporting policy practised by the South African national broadcaster with a profound sense of shock and dismay.
The shameful news of the South African Broadcasting Corporation‘s (SABC) informal reporting policy came to light in September after an internal commission was set up to investigate the News and Current Affairs Managing Director Snuki Zikalala.
The commission – under former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus SC – found that the SABC had indeed blacklisted certain commentators and analysts. It was not official policy, but rather “by instruction” that certain commentators and analysts were not used because they were critical of President Thabo Mbeki. Those on the blacklist included commentators on both South Africa, and on the Zimbabwe situation. The commission found that these “instructions” were not always objectively justifiable, particularly in the case of reporting on Zimbabwe.
The commission found direct evidence that Zikalala gave instructions that Moeletsi Mbeki, Elinor Sisulu and Trevor Ncube should not be used as commentators on Zimbabwe. Both Mbeki and Sisulu appeared before the commission. “Contrary to Dr Zikalala’s impression that they were out of touch, both struck us as having deep roots and connections within Zimbabwe,” the report says. “This is especially true of Ms Sisulu.” It adds: “We find that there was an instruction given not to use Mr Mbeki and Ms Sisulu for reasons which are not objectively defensible. We also find that Mr Ncube was directly informed by Dr Zikalala that he could not be used for reasons which are not justifiable.”
The obvious question to which these revelations gives rise is why these persons in particular were “blacklisted”. Elinor Sisulu is an active member of civil society both in South Africa and in Zimbabwe; Moeletsi Mbeki is a former journalist and now businessman and head of the South African Institute of International Affairs; and publisher Trevor Ncube is a successful Zimbabwean newspaper editor, whose stable includes the Zimbabwe Independent, and the South African Mail and Guardian. None of these eminent persons conform to South African President Thabo Mbeki‘s agenda of quiet diplomacy – indeed, all have been outspoken in the cause of freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe.
Nor is this interference in objective media reporting confined to the last few months. Back in April 2005, the then Head of News at SABC Radio, wrote Zikalala a letter outlining her concern:
…if your instruction was not to use Moeletsi Mbeki, Archbishop Pius Ncube, Trevor Ncube or Elinor Sisulu, all legitimate public figures, then I submit that it is so unreasonable to be unimplementable. It would be morally wrong, professionally wrong, and ethically wrong, and violate not only our editorial code but the spirit of our Constitution.
Tellingly, that letter elicited a one-sentence reply from Zikalala the same day: “I don’t think that I will have the time and energy to be involved in such arguments”.
The fourth name blacklisted above, Archbishop Pius Ncube, is that of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, a courageous and outspoken critic of the Mugabe regime, who is also far from pursuing the “quiet diplomacy” of Thabo Mbeki.
Still more tellingly, at the conclusion of the commission’s mandate, SABC sought to keep its findings secret, going to court to get an interdict forbidding The Mail and Guardian from publishing the full text of the report. Thankfully, the High Court Judge dismissed their application, saying, “I don’t believe that it is okay to suppress information or to hide information written in the report”, and stating that the content of the report was of extreme importance to the public as the SABC was a public broadcaster.
Franz Krüger, a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand’s school of journalism, said the SABC had “handled this whole episode very poorly”: “I think it’s a real indictment for a news organisation to try [to] interdict another from publishing something that’s clearly in the public interest.” He said that The Mail & Guardian Online’s decision to release the report was “a completely appropriate decision and that there was no justification for keeping the report under wraps”. “People need to see what the commissioners actually found,” he said. He added that the fact that the report found that people were excluded was “horrific”. “I don’t see how [Snuki Zikalala] can survive this but he probably will. He’s doing what the board wants him to do. The board wants coverage that is sympathetic.”
The questions that this affair raises are, firstly, from how far up the chain of command did this reporting policy originate; and secondly, what are the implications for Zimbabwe (not to mention, of course, for South Africa)?
To address the first question, as was pointed out above by Wits’ senior lecturer Franz Kruger, the policy employed was almost certainly dictated by the board of SABC. It is highly unlikely that Zikalala would have been acting on his own initiative. It was even reported, directly after the event, that the Group Chief Executive of SABC, Dali Mpofu, was “reconsidering his options”. So SABC – the national media house of South Africa – has been exposed as having, albeit unofficially, a policy of biased reporting.
Would SABC take this stand on its own initiative? This seems unlikely. Here, it is pertinent to look at the official government attitude in South Africa to the situation north of their borders, in Zimbabwe. Thabo Mbeki has been employing a much-criticised tactic of “quiet diplomacy” for a number of years now. Initially, this was not unreasonable, his rationale being to work behind the scenes with Mugabe to effect policy changes in Zimbabwe. However, as the months and years have passed, any such efforts that he might have been employing have been demonstrated to be worse than useless because the regime has become progressively more entrenched and more intractable. Accordingly his tactic has been increasingly criticised in the international community.
So did the instruction to the SABC come from the man at the top himself? That we cannot say for sure, though there are many indicators that point in that direction.
As to the second question, the most serious implication for Zimbabwe is that the current political and economic crisis – and the attendant humanitarian catastrophe – will deepen without the benefit of the objective reporting and informed analysis one would have expected in South Africa.
People are dying in Zimbabwe. Aids, poverty and malnutrition have taken their toll on the population, so much so that the average life expectancy has fallen to 34 years for women, and 37 for men. We need this news to be publicised; we need people – influential foreign leaders – to realise the depth of the humanitarian crisis here and to intervene. As already stated, Zimbabwean journalists are hamstrung by draconian laws and by the threat of the ever-present and much-feared (and rightly so!) Central Intelligence Organisation (the CIO, Zimbabwe’s secret police). As such, we rely heavily on South African media houses who are on our doorstep, to report the situation accurately and objectively. They have an historic opportunity to play a part in exposing, not only the humanitarian disaster which is unfolding within Zimbabwe but the massive crisis in governance which has created, and is now prolonging, that situation. If they should fail to seize this opportunity now in effect they would be contributing to the perpetuation of misrule and suffering. Biased reporting – or simply looking the other way – is costing lives in Zimbabwe.
“Publish and be damned” runs the old adage of intrepid reporters who refuse to allow themselves to be intimidated by tyranny in any guise. For Zimbabweans however who have no free press of their own, it is more a case of certainly being damned – condemned to untold further suffering – unless the truth about their country is published.
Zimbabweans are as united in their resolve today to remove the Mugabe regime as ever South Africans were to remove the cancer of Apartheid from their country. It is a Zimbabwean struggle of course but, critically, they need the understanding and strategic support of South Africa – as the liberation movement in South Africa once required the strategic support of the international community. The international community can criticise Mugabe and his regime but, with silence from South Africa and President Mbeki, this can all too easily be dismissed by Harare as “white neo-colonial interference”. What is needed is for Mbeki, as a black African head of state to stand up to the bully and say “No”. Mbeki has the power and influence that comes with being the leader of the economic and financial powerhouse of Africa to lead the way for a concerted international push on Mugabe to step down and hold free and fair elections.
We can be thankful that the evil of SABC’s reporting policy has been exposed: when matters come to the light they can be dealt with; whilst they remain hidden, the evil can work unhindered. We hope that the findings of the commission, and the subsequent subterfuge, will prompt all South Africans to pose hard questions to their elected representatives. We trust this will lead to a purge of the web of deceit that has been spun, and a new openness to objective, truthful and balanced reporting.
Most of all, we look to the day when President Mbeki will wake up to the fact that the disaster on his doorstep will not go away unless he and his government act decisively. Forget the old liberation war credentials – we need to be rid of the tyrant – and we need President Mbeki to act as senior African statesman to make this a reality.
Wake up, South Africa !
Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, AIPPA, South Africa, South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, Snuki Zikalala, Thabo Mbeki, quiet diplomacy, freedom, democracy, media, journalism, news, reporting
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