''We want to tell the SABC 'we are watching you' and we demand something better. Much, much better.''
So says Kate Skinner, coordinator of the Support Public Broadcasting (SOS) Coalition on why South Africa's exasperated TV industry has decided on full-scale protest action that will take place this coming Thursday 24 November at 13:00 at the SABC in Henley Avenue Johannesburg as well as in Cape Town at the visitors' centre at parliament.
Ordinary TV viewers and radio listeners are welcome to join the public picketing with people who will be wearing red and black with placards. The protest will follow a similar one in 2009 when the TV industry also mobilised in a show of solidary and picketed the beleaguered SABC.
Explaining the reason for Thursday's public protest, Kate Skinner tells TV with Thinus that the massive public protest will be aimed at ''highlighting the critical importance of public broadcasting and to register our dismay and disillusionment around the perpetual corporate governance problems that keep rocking the SABC.''
''We want to put pressure on the SABC to deal with these problems once and for all! We also want to highlight the importance of excellent public programming and put pressure on the SABC to deliver on its public programming mandate. We want to tell the SABC 'we are watching you' and we demand something better. Much, much better.''
Kate Skinner says South Africa's TV industry and the SOS Coalition ''further really believe that it will be a step in the right direction to get dr Ben Ngubane, SABC chairperson, removed by parliament.''
''Someone needs to take accountability for the sorry state of affairs at our public broadcaster. Nothing will change if no-one is held to account. We hope to get dr Ben Ngubane removed. At the very least we hope to highlight the importance of public broadcasting and coming up with an alternative vision to the one we have now,'' she says.
The SABC didn't respond to media enquiries made about the TV industry's demand that dr Ben Ngubane step down, or the planned public protest action scheduled for this Thursday.
