The South African public broadcaster is heading to court on Saturday morning to oppose the application of an urgent court interdict brought by the SABC's former COO-now-politician Hlaudi Motsoeneng who is demanding that the SABC cover his political party's manifesto launch of the African Content Movement (ACM) today live on SABC2 and SABC News (DStv 404).
The SABC says that it will be vigorously opposing the application, that will be heard in the South Gauteng High Court on Saturday from 10:00.
The SABC says that it will cover the ACM's manifesto launch by its SABC News division as a news story but won't be doing live or rolling coverage.
The SABC says that it has not and will not be doing any live coverage of the manifesto launches ahead of South Africa's upcoming elections on 8 May for any of the new and existing political parties that have no representation in South Africa's parliament.
The SABC says in a statement that "no political party can dictate to the SABC how it provides political coverage of election-related activities" and that the South African Broadcasting Corporation "remains committed to covering the 2019 elections in an unrestrained, independent and impartial manner".
Phathiswa Magopeni, the SABC's head of news and current affairs says "this is an editorial decision that has taken into account, amongst others, resource constraints and equitable coverage treatment of political parties contesting the elections".
"In addition, as per Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) regulations, there is no obligation on the SABC to provide live coverage to any political party".
Meanwhile Hlaudi Motsoeneng on the campaign trail has said the ACM will help to empower people with disabilities like "people with albinion".
In a clip circulating on social media, Hlaudi Motsoeneng this week denied that the ACM is a front for the corrupt former South African president Jacob Zuma, saying "Zuma party? No, you are playing! There is no Zuma here. There is only one future president, and it's Hlaudi".
"The new testament is the ACM. The ANC they don’t have ideas! How to turn around South Africa. How to make sure they empower young people, people with disabilities - people with albinion!"
Hlaudi Motsoeneng possibly meant "albinism", a congenital condition that has led to discrimination of black people with less melanin in their skin.
Please watch til the end for the kicker 🤭🤭🤭 pic.twitter.com/g3CswD8Zkf— 🧘🏾♀️ C A S S A N D R A 🧜🏿♀️ (@MsCassandraGud) April 5, 2019
