Media provocateur Eusebius McKaiser dead at 45 after suspected epileptic seizure.

by Thinus Ferreira

The well-known South African provocateur, broadcaster, writer and political analyst Eusebius McKaiser suddenly died on Tuesday in Johannesburg after suffering a suspected epileptic seizure. He was 45.

According to his manager Jackie Strydom, the prolific writer, commentator and debater apparently suffered a suspected epileptic seizure on Tuesday in his Sandton home.

In a statement, his family said that "It is with great sadness that we report that our beloved family member, friend and colleague, Eusebius McKaiser, passed away unexpectedly earlier this afternoon".

"He was a loving son, brother, uncle, partner and special friend. He was also well loved and respected locally and worldwide for his political commentary and analysis on race and identity."

In a statement, the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) chairperson Sbu Ngalwa says Eusebius McKaiser "will be missed for his sharp intellect and contribution to the thought leadership discourse in South Africa and beyond".

"He held very strong views that he could actually back up. You just had to admire his mind whether you agreed with him or not."

"He was not shy to challenge anyone, including journalists – pointing out double standards and raising ethical issues. He really made one to sit up and take notice or to check their blindspots. He made a huge contribution to the South African media landscape We are poorer without him."

Besides being a prolific writer for South African news publications as well as international news publications, he also hosted TV shows like Interface on SABC3 and Meet the Media on eNCA (DStv 403).

In 2015 Eusebius McKaiser accused the South African public broadcaster of once again blacklisting commentators and revealed how SABC News once again stifled freedom of speech and how he was banned from appearing on the SABC's airwaves for a critical newspaper column he had written.

Besides having been a TV host, Eusebius McKaiser also had several different talk shows on Primedia's 702 talk radio station as well as Power FM, and appeared frequently as a media commentator on television and radio, besides launching his own podcast show.

Eusebius McKaiser was born in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape where he attended St Mary's Primary School and Graeme College, after which he did a BA degree an Honours degree and a Masters degree in philosophy at Rhodes University. He also studied at the University of Oxford for a doctor's degree he never completed.

Rhodes University described Eusebius McKaiser as "a political activist focused on social and political topics that impact on our lives and make people sit up and take notice".

The university described him as "community-driven and provides a living example of victory over racism and homophobia. He is a strong advocate of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Intersex community and educates the public about gay rights and the immorality of crimes committed against homosexuals".

Eusebius McKaiser was a social analyst at the Wits Centre for Ethics and at the University of Johannesburg Centre for the Study of Democracy.

Eusebius McKaiser authored the books A Bantu in my Bathroom: Debating Race, Sexuality and Other Uncomfortable South African Topics (2012), Could I Vote DA?: A Vote's Dilemma (2014), and Run, Racist Run: Journeys into the Heart of Racism (2016).

Eusebius McKaiser leaves behind his partner Nduduzo Nyanda.

... More to come ...

Radio 702 talk show and presenter Eusebius McKaiser created hostile environment, showed intolerance, Broadcasting Complaints Commission finds.

702 has breached the Broadcasting Code with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) finding that the talk radio station breached the Broadcasting Code after a talk show presenter created a hostile environment, showed intolerance against opposing views and exhibited a lack of respect towards callers and other views.

702, owned by Primedia Broadcasting, wasn't fined but got reprimanded by the BCCSA following listener complaints, after a morning show on 7 May 2017 with presenter Eusebius McKaiser.

Listeners submitted complaints to the BCCSA regarding Eusebius McKaiser's apparent "censorship" and told the BCCSA that despite the presenter's "vitriolic attack" on former South African president FW de Klerk they would have liked to hear what the De Klerk Foundation would have said it the representative wasn't cut off.

"Many people would have liked to hear what the chair of the De Klerk foundation has to say about this sensitive subject but Eusebius McKaiser's censorship will only allow selected comments to go on air.

“I feel that this kind of conduct is upsetting to a lot of people and also agitating in an already volatile social climate. Eusebius McKaiser’s conduct does not help the people of South Africa to understand the importance of open, honest dialogue as an important tool to solve problems. He causes tension between races and people with different background,” one of the complainants, Thomas Mihal told the BCCSA.

Dave Steward, chairman of The FW de Klerk Foundation, who was heard on the day's phone-in show, was one of the other complainants, and said he was "shouted down and ultimately cut off by Eusebius McKaiser".

702's topic revolved around the inclusion of the former apartheid president FW de Klerk's inclusion in a forum of former presidents aiming at promoting a dialogue around issues facing the country, and whether it was appropriate for an apartheid president to be included in the initiative known as the National Foundations Dialogue Initiative (NFDI). 

Eusebius McKaiser cut the representative off who was on the line.

702 told the BCCSA that it disputes the allegations that the talk show was a "vitriolic attack on FW de Klerk", saying the show's intention was not to criticise FW de Klerk. 702 told the BCCSA that former president Thabo Mbeki and current president Jacob Zuma were both also criticised in the programme.

The BCCSA in its judgement found that Eusebius McKaiser "didn't make reasonable efforts to fairly present opposing points of view", that there was "a hostile attitude demonstrated towards De Klerk by what both the presenter and his guests said", that the presenter didn't correct a caller using the word "criminal" and that the only caller making an effort to put up an opposing view had his call cut off.

The BCCSA found that the 702 talk show exhibited "a lack of fairness", that "the lack of respect towards callers and lack of tolerance towards views which do not correspond to those of the presenter also appear from what is said" and that "these are qualities that are expected of presenters in this type of programme".

BCCSA: '702's Eusebius not tolerant'

The BCCSA also slammed 702 for arguing that the show was not aimed at discussing FW de Klerk’s views, calling the radio station's argument "to say the least, ingenious".

"The many times that De Klerk’s name was mentioned during the programme, which lasted 80 minutes, is proof of the fact that the programme was about him and, by necessary implication, his views," the BCCSA says in its judgment.

"702 argued that it would have been irresponsible to have De Klerk on the show. We find that it was a contravention of clause 13(2) of the Code not to have him or a spokesperson of his foundation on the show."

"The first complainant, who is a spokesperson for the FW de Klerk Foundation, was not invited to appear on the talk show, and when he phoned in, he was cut off before finishing his contribution to the debate."

"It is clear to us that the intention of the presenter was to cast as bad a light as possible on De Klerk and in the process he was not tolerant towards opposing views, thereby not obtaining balance between opposing points of view".

"It is important to state that nowhere in this judgment do we say or even suggest that 702 should not have discussed De Klerk or his views. This is the content of the right to freedom of expression which the BCCSA enforces."

The BCCSA says "the presenter did not make a reasonable effort to fairly present opposing points of view. Neither did 702 allow De Klerk a right to reply, while its intention with the programme was clearly to criticise De Klerk".

702 was not ordered to broadcast a summary of the finding and the BCCSA judgement found that "the appropriate sanction in this instance will be a reprimand" for 702.

BREAKING. eNCA abruptly cancels Meet the Media with Eusebius McKaiser without any explanation; says 'the show has served its purpose'.

It cannot be that it happened because he dared to wear a doek, but eNCA (DStv 403) has abruptly decided to cancel its well-received new local weekly media review show, Meet the Media with Eusebius McKaiser - without any explanation as to why, saying "the show has served its purpose".

The Sunday morning, Hyde Park studio set media overview show that started a few months ago has abruptly been dumped by eNCA where Anton Harber is editor-in-chief, in a move seen as further denting the news channel's already horrific track-record with culling what's left of its current affairs programming slate.

In a terse statement about the abrupt cancellation of Meet the Media, eNCA simply says the show has "ended its current season on eNCA. In the new year, eNCA will be exploring new concepts for their programming to align with 2017's political calendar. eNCA looks forward to working with Eusebius on new projects in 2017".

eNCA was asked why it decided to cancel Meet the Media and why eNCA conceptualised and put a show on the air for just a few months if it didn't believe in the show.

"As indicated in the release we are conceptualising new ideas for the channel in 2017 and these will be announced before the end of February," says Mapi Mhlangu, eNCA news director in response to a media enquiry from TVwithThinus.

"We feel the show has served its purpose for the period intended. We feel there is a better way to use Eusebius' skills on our channel in the future".

Meet the Media was birthed during an extremely difficult year for electronic news gathering in South Africa that saw censorship from the SABC's TV news division, public broadcasting TV journalists who got crucified for trying to do their jobs, as well as the most journalists being fired in one year collectively at ANN7 (DStv 405), SABC News and eNCA - with internal controversy inside their newsrooms and several public protests in 2016 at the doors of each of the news outlets.

In just a few months Meet the Media brought a new and soothing panacea to a battered South African journalism community - a place where reflection and introspection about local media and journalism issues could breathe.

While Media Monitor on Sundays with Alicia Jali on SABC News (DStv 404) blatantly ignores certain hot potato media issues it doesn't want to highlight or discuss and while the controversial SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng in 2016 banned the showing and discussion of newspapers and even the mentioning of newspaper headlines and stories on SABC television and radio, Meet the Media weekly rejoiced, celebrated and showed not just newspaper front pages but the varied journalists and editors behind it.

Besides talking about the week's big news and South African newspaper stories, looking at news biases and journalism challenges within the South African press and media sphere, Eusebius McKaiser and Meet the Media made an authentic and deeply meaningful effort to do weekly, focused media discussions.

These ran the gamut from things like LGBT and faith issues, to political journalism, consumer and economics journalism, sport journalism, talk radio, newsroom juniorisation, lack of news gathering resources and the challenges faced by community journalism.

Talking to real electronic and print journalists and giving them face and airtime - from the biggest outlets and publications to the smallest community radio stations - Eusebius McKaiser and Meet the Media highlighted various aspects, the different types of journalism and bringing attention to some of the crucial issues the ordinary public consuming news and media are not aware of.

Not in years on South African television, until Meet the Media did it a few months ago, did viewers see something like an on-air discussion on how journalists covering cases of sexual violence feel themselves, cope, and handle the ethical issues around their reporting.

Meet the Media was quickly as agenda-setting in its nature and turned into can't-miss viewing for media types as it was reflective of exactly how the interconnected cogs of the local media sphere turn.

It's Meet the Media - not Carte Blanche - where the SABC's acting CEO Jimi Matthews who had just quit made his very first - and dramatic - on-air TV appearance.

It's Meet the Media where South African viewers got a glimpse of how truly diverse the country's press and journalism corps is despite the many challenges that still exists regarding transformation and race issues.

On a weekly basis, media glitterati from Ferial Haffajee and John Perlman to Stephen Grootes, Mandy Wiener and Wendy Knowler shared the Meet the Media stage with a full spectrum media coterie that ranged from Muslim women, gay men and TV producers to white legacy newspaper editors and black female talk radio hosts - all unified in trying to tell the ever-unfolding South African story.  

Not since the 1990's well-respected Between the Lines on the SABC that was eventually cancelled has South African television truly had an unvarnished and uncensored media navel-gazing show like Meet the Media - one that eNCA abruptly cancelled because "the show has served its purpose".

Together with Carte Blanche on M-Net and the newly added Reliable Sources on CNN International (DStv 401) this year, Meet the Media helped to transform Sunday television into the most meta-media day of the week, now only leaving the more advertising and marketing centric Maggs on Media on eNCA on Sundays.

While it's clear that there wasn't editorial interference into the actual content and discussions taking place inside the weekly half hour of Meet the Media, it's quite possible that Anton Harber, eNCA editors and top executives were rankled to differing degree - if they were watching - by some of the criticism levelled against eNCA itself in a few episodes.

The criticism however ironically served to only strengthen viewer perception about the credibility of Meet the Media to really get to grips with real media issues.

Some episodes of Meet the Media didn't single out eNCA specifically, but did include criticism of the eMedia Investments news channel - although the criticism came more in a way of searching for answers about the "why" of it and by example, looking for solutions.

Instances of where eNCA came in for criticism on eNCA itself through Meet the Media the past few months included it's lack of comprehensive coverage during the tertiary #FeesMustFall protests and its lack of aptly places field journalists outside major cities, juniorisation of the newsroom, how commercial broadcasting issues affect editorial decisions, as well as eNCA's shoddy use of off-the-mark Ipsos polling in the run-up to the municipal elections that created wrong perceptions with dubious research methodology that were not disclosed to viewers.

In the same vein Meet the Media also unintentionally served as a media showcase for things like eNCA's newsroom diversity, with its now last episode including Matuba Mahlatjie as a panelist who is a black male gay sangoma working inside the eNCA newsroom.

SABC accused of 'blacklisting' again; 'disinvite' commentator and former SABC anchor Eusebius McKaiser from show after critical column.

Is the SABC back to blacklisting press and commentators? That’s what South Africa's media is wondering yet again after the SABC withdrew an invitation to commentator Eusebius McKaiser to appear on a talk show after a newspaper column of his this week was critical of ANC leaders.

Eusebius McKaiser said he was "uninvited" on Tuesday as a guest on the SABC's AM Live show, after he wrote a column critical of President Jacob Zuma, police minister Nkosinathi Nhleko and other senior ANC leaders. He blasted them for not speaking out about the ongoing Nkandlagate scandal.

Eusebius McKaiser's newspaper column appeared on Monday in the Independent Media group's The Star newspaper.

According to Eusebius McKaiser - who once anchored the weekly actuality magazine show Interface on SABC television - “"a producer of AM Live's debate slot after 08:00 called me to uninvite me because he was instructed from higher up that my criticism of senior ANC leaders remaining silent about Nkandlagate should not be discussed on Sakina Kamwendo's show".

Eusebius McKaiser said Sakina Kamwendo's integrity remained intact but that people should "spare a thought for her and others doing daily battle at the SABC to have the space to be honest professionals".

"What irks me is that the SABC belongs to South Africa. It's not commercial media and so has a greater duty to be a public broadcaster and certainly not a state broadcaster".

"We need to push back against these rotting tendencies," wrote Eusebius McKaiser on his Facebook page.


Blacklisting ‘alarming’
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago didn't respond to requests for comment about the apparent "disinviting" of Eusebius McKaiser.

The independent public pressure group SOS Coalition, made up of a spectrum of civil society stakeholders committed to free, fair and quality public broadcasting in South Africa, described the incident as "alarming".

"We all remember what the blacklisting scandal of 2006 did to the public's confidence in the SABC. Are we really reliving this again and so soon?" asks Sekoetlane Phamodi, SOS Coalition spokesperson.

"The SOS Coalition has repeatedly warned the public about the direction the SABC is going with its de facto 70% good news policy," says Sekoetlane Phamodi.

"It's alarming, although unsurprising, that commentators are claiming they are being blacklisted from the national public broadcaster because they hold views which do not suit the state and government."

"The SABC's editorial policies were reviewed 11 years ago and are, by law, now 6 years out of date, but remain specific about balanced reporting and commentary."

"Once again, the SABC higher-ups have interpreted this to restrict reporting that suits their own political agenda, giving the impression that the SABC is under the firm control of Luthuli House," says Sekoetlane Phamodi.

Public broadcasting expert and media researcher Kate Skinner tells TV with Thinus that "since the blacklisting crisis there has been a steady stream of censorship cases and these are often linked to critical political moments – for instance around the ANC's Mangaung conference and then around the May 2014 elections, which saw the banning of opposition adverts and the censorship of the booing of President Zuma".

In November 2012, the SABC admitted to blacklisting commentators and agreed that this was not in line with its code of conduct and that it contravened its licensing conditions in respect of news and current affairs. The SABC claimed to have adopted guidelines on the use of commentators, experts and analysts.

BREAKING. eNCA secures and schedules special hour long episode of BBC's Question Time asking what about SA after Madiba's gone?

eNCA (DStv 403) has secured and scheduled a simply must-watch hour long special episode of the BBC's Question Time which will go out tonight, Saturday (14 December), asking in a hard-hitting panel discussion what South Africa's future hold now that Nelson Mandela is gone.

The special Question Time episode with host and moderator David Dimbleby which was filmed in Johannesburg in front of a live studio audience, will be repeated on eNCA on Sunday morning 15 December at 10:00.

The must-watch Question Time episode eNCA secured features an exceptionally fiery discussion regarding the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the future of South Africa following the death of the global icon.

Question Time panelists include Peter Hain (British MP), Pik Botha (South Africa's former minister of foreign affairs), Lindiwe Mazibuko (DA), Lindiwe Zulu (ANC), Eusebius McKaiser (political analyst) and Andile Mngzitama (EFF).

The panelists are asked whether it was wrong of the crowd at Nelson Mandela's memorial service to boo president Jacob Zuma, and how they perceive racism in South Africa.

Eusebius McKaiser's shock Interface resignation: 'To leave the SABC can be good for one's CV. It means you are guilty of journalism'.

In his shocking resignation as the presenter of SABC3's political and current affairs show Interface at Sunday nights at 21:30, Eusebius McKaiser - citing that he was only paid R4 000 per month (R1 000 per week) - says ''I had no choice but to resign'' and says ''having to leave the SABC can be good for one's CV. It means you are guilty of  journalism'.

In an email from Eusebius McKaiser explaining why he quit, he says that R4 000 for 4 shows a month - for which he was the presenter as well as content producer - was to ''undervalue my professional skill set, and my dignity''. The South African media thought leader however also alludes to ''murkier truths'' besides just the low pay that led to his decision to dump the show, writing that ''self-censorship on the part of a sufficient number of SABC employees suffice to keep our politicians happy.''

The Interface presenter who's shocking resignation is sending shockwaves through the TV industry and which is once again going to raise questions regarding the SABC's editorial independence and possible political pressure, writes that ''my resignation made life easier. For everyone''. Eusebius McKaiser writes however that he will continue in broadcasting and continue to hold politicians to account ''but in the media outlets that do not shirk their social duty to be independent, analytic and fearless''.

Eusebius McKaiser who writes that the model for Interface was actually the BBC's Hard Talk interview programme, says he's ''disappointed'' that there was no phone call from his boss, Jimi Matthews - who's the head of the SABC's TV news and current affairs division - ''for days until I called him'' and cites various issues in his letter to give more perspective on why he decided to leave the SABC current affairs production in which he grilled local politicians.

Claiming that ''he [Jimi Matthews] did not do enough to help me stay on in the face of silent and not-so-silent pressures on him,'' Eusebius McKaiser writes that ''the bigger implication is that the vision Jimi Matthews has for the SABC's news and current affairs division will, in the end, be pointless, if he is unable/unwilling to resist his peers/bosses who are averse to, well, gutsy journalism. And that, clearly, is now happening.''

The SABC didn't respond immediately to a request for comment I made to the public broadcaster on Sunday night.

UPDATE Monday 18 July 15:15 - The SABC just responded:
''The SABC will not discuss individual's contracts, previous or current with the media,'' the SABC says in answer to my question on whether Eusebius McKaiser was paid R4 000 a month to do Interface.

''The SABC and Mr McKaiser parted ways amicably, when an agreement could  not be reached on a new contract,'' says the SABC in answer to my question on whether the SABC has any comment or statement, specially in relation to what Eusebius McKaiser says about Jimi Matthews and to what Eusebius McKaiser has said.