The SABC has again won awards at the Media Sunshine Awards.
The 2nd Mpumalanga Media Sunshine Awards took place on Saturday in Middelburg where the South African public broadcaster scooped prizes at the awards ceremony for talent in the media and music industries.
Flomi Skhosana, executive producer for the SABC's Ndebele TV news and Ndebele news reader Reader Vusi Ndlovu won, as well as Ligwalagwala FM radio presenters Lungile Mhango and Dumisa Mavuso.
Tys Mngidi from Ikwekwezi FM won as best sports commentator.
The SABC winning awards at this ceremony is ironic, given that the public broadcaster's controversial boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng is known for his push for what is known as "sunshine journalism" - so-called "positive stories" that shy away from topics like corruption, failures around goverment and government service delivery issues and service delivery protests.
His plan and announcement earlier this year of 90% local music airplay on SABC radio stations was followed by an order for 80% local TV content on SABC3, and was preceded a few year's ago with a dictum of "70% happy news" on the SABC's TV and radio stations.
In 2013 Hlaudi Motsoeneng said that "from the SABC's side, 70% should be positive news stories and then you can have 30% negative stories. The reason I am championing this is because if you only talk about the negative, people can't even try to think on their feet."
In mid-July this year the broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) ordered the SABC - after a public hearing and a massive public outcry - to reverse Hlaudi Motsoeneng's decision taken in May this year, to censor visuals of the destruction of property on SABC TV news.
