Here is the joke about the SABC which has been percolating all day through newsrooms and the TV industry: Why was the SABC suddenly forced to cancel all its own religious programming immediately?
"Turns out every time the SABC has any religious show where there's any kind of talk about the devil, the SABC must first try find him in order for the show to be balanced - and so far the SABC has failed to get him to appear."
The joke shows how daft the SABC has been in first inviting three newspaper analysts and then banning them and cancelling the roundtable discussion on one of the public broadcaster's radio stations, further denting and damaging what's left of the SABC's credibility in news and current affairs reporting.
The SABC contends that every time there is talk about the ANC on the public broadcaster's airwaves, the ANC must be present. Hilarious.
Now South Africa's broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has opened an investigation into renewed allegations of blacklisting practices by the SABC and has ordered the public broadcaster to provide all the relevant information by 11 December surrounding the highly controversial decision to first invite, then dump the journalists.
The controversial last minute editorial decision has ignited a torrent of unanimous condemnationa and revulsion from across South Africa's civil society.
