Calling it 'despicable', Media Monitoring Africa's William Bird says the government's silence and inaction to bail out the South African public broadcaster looks like 'a direct attempt to crash the SABC'.

William Bird, director at the Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) says the South African government looks like it deliberately wants to "crash the SABC" by doing nothing and saying nothing about the billion rand government bailout that was promised to the public broadcaster but not received while the beleagued SABC is literally on the verge of seizing up and shutting down.

Treasury and the department of communications headed up by Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams as minister of communications have been silent as the SABC hovers on the edge of the biggest existential crisis in the South African public broadcaster's history.

William Bird was interviewed on Tuesday on the SABC's SAfm radio station after shocking revelations by the SABC board chairperson on Sunday and the SABC's chief financial officer on Monday that the broke SABC can't guarantee the payment of staff salaries in two weeks time at the end of June.

"It's despicable. They've known about this for well over a year, the SABC's deepening financial crisis, and the only conclusion you can possibly draw is that this is a direct attempt to crash the SABC," he said.

"It's not as though the SABC hasn't alerted parliament and Treasury and the department of communications to what's been going on."

On Sunday, Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC chairperson, warned that the SABC is finally on the verge of collapse with a blackout that could happen any moment.

"I’m not sure how we are going to pay for salaries come end of June," Bongumusa Makhathini said in a report in The Sunday Times.

The SABC that is perilously close to no longer broadcasting hasn't paid for municipal services like electricity at the end of May, choosing to rather pay SABC staff salaries. The SABC now owes the City of Johannesburg more than R13.5 million.

The SABC that is drowning in debt owes the parastatal signal distributor Sentech R317 million and MultiChoice's sports content division SuperSport over R208 million. Beyond that the SABC also owes millions to other content providers like independent South African production companies.

Nothing has so far come of the SABC's plea for a massive R6.8 billion in another government bailout.

On Monday, Yolande van Biljon, the SABC's CFO, warned in an interview with SABC News (DStv 404) that the beleaguered South African public broadcaster's "Day Zero can happen tomorrow" and refused to confirm that SABC staffers will be paid at the end of June.

Yolande van Biljon said that the SABC owes R1.8 billion to hundreds of companies.

On Tuesday Bemawu led by Hannes du Buisson and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) led by Aubrey Tshabalala, in a joint letter demanded an urgent meeting with the SABC board to ensure that SABC staffers will be paid at the end of this month.

Both Bemawu and the CWU demand to know what is happening with the long-delayed government bailout that Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the current minister of communications, promised.

The SABC urgently needs a cash bailout of R3.2 billion to keep public broadcasting services going in South Africa, while Tito Mboweni, South Africa's minister of finance after his budget speech in February revealed that the SABC now needs a massive R6.8 billion in a government bailout.

William Bird said "In allowing this situation to get to the point where they're putting all of the people under such massive and unreasonable pressure just to perform their basic jobs, it's clearly something that is an effort to crash the SABC. It's really unforgiveable behaviour by the South African government."

"The problem of course is that it's the ordinary members of the public that will suffer and it's all of those thousands of people at the SABC who won't get paid. So it's tragic."

William Bird said "this really is something that they are deliberately allowing to get to that point of absolute crisis. And we've seen so many people resign".

"I think that's a clear effort to get rid of people who are doing their jobs and are seen doing their jobs, and the only leverage now is to cut the money".

SABC to establish an internal ombudsman for SABC News complaints.

The SABC will introduce an internal ombudsman for SABC News complaints from the public and establish a ring-fenced office to deal with queries and issues regarding SABC News editorial and coverage, the South African public broadcaster announced on Monday night.

Chris Maroleng, SABC COO, in an interview with Ashraf Garda on SAfm on Monday night, said "we, through the reform and transformation of the newsroom will also introduce what we are describing as an internal ombud who will allow the public to complain".

The surprising move - not prompted through any external pressure on the SABC - is the latest in a sudden string of positive self-correcting changes at the SABC.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation in the past few weeks announced an inquiry into undue influence on SABC News and its editorial processes, an inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment and sexual abuse inside the SABC, as well as a rebranding of the SABC News service on television and radio.

The SABC's internal ombudsman will function independently, and in addition to the existing Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) whose Broadcasting Code of Conduct the SABC already subscribes to.

The SABC is currently busy with a long-overdue review of the public broadcaster's editorial policy that started in July 2017, trying to bring it up to date since it was last reviewed 14 years ago in 2004.


SAfm changed explained
About the changes at SAfm and listeners who are unhappy with the news and current affairs changes, Chris Maroleng said the anger has to do with how people have become "accustomed to consuming their news and current affairs. The first thing is that we were over-delivering on SAfm on news and current affairs".

"What we were doing is we were producing 6 hours of news and current affairs and the problem with news and current affairs apart from the crucial importance, the way in which we packaged it, is it could not perform commercially to the extent that it supported the broadcast network which is quite extensive for SAfm."

"It was costing us several million. The other thing that we did, we needed to migrate the way that news and current affairs was consumed to a format that was more accustomed to the way that some of our competitors - and more importantly, the global trend of global news consumption - has changed."

"So we developed opportunities around talk radio format content, mixed in with our current affairs obligation, without dropping the mandated, regulatory provision for that current affairs content. So the value judgment we had to make, is how do we develop news content and a news platform that develops conversation and that allows debate in a vibrant, independent way, without putting too much of a burden on the commercial imperative."


Sakina Kamwendo: We should have informed public better
About the shocking removal of Sakina Kamwendo from SAfm's morning slot that saw SAfm producers abruptly censor her and yank her off air during her last show, leaving people listening to music to fill dead air, Chris Maroleng said that the SABC censorship and lack of communication "is a personal regret of mine".

"In our haste to try and fix it and to try and put right things that needed to be made better within the SABC we need to bring along people. We need to understand that it is ultimately people who come from  a very difficult period of abuse, of abuse of power, of unfair decisions being made which were not necessarily in the interest of the SABC."

He said the censorship of Sakina Kamwendo and her abrupt removal "was not an intention to shut [her] down". "We could have done much better in ensuring that the way in which we communicated the rationale of the change, could have been done much better," said Chris Maroleng.

"What we did wrong - I think what we should have done better is also inform our public a bit better," he said.

The SABC that launched an internal investigation into what happened on the day has refused to make the findings public.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 5 April 2018.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

■ MUST READ: The SABC's changes at its SAfm radio station reveals a broader malaise in a dumbed-down society.
The Mail & Guardian on the SABC's poor communication of plans, and how the SABC that wants to change SAfm from a current affairs and hard news radio station to "talk radio" is part of why the SABC remains a schizophrenic institution.

■ Mistakes cost brands customers.
A new study has found that a significant number of consumers will and do drop brands when they make mistakes. 55% of consumers say they give a brand one chance only before moving on to another brand - and millennials are the most unforgiving. Brand perception among consumers is something marketers should take very, very seriously.

■ The SABC says the South African public broadcaster is in ongoing talks with trade unions about changes at SAfm - while SABC chairperson Bongimusa Makhathini says he received an anonymous e-mail making allegations of corruption at the South African public broadcaster.

■ Jennifer Lopez' low-rated cop drama, Shades of Blue, seen on M-Net City (DStv 115), cancelled after 3 seasons.

■ Death by TV: An Irish man dies after his TV set exploded.

■ MUST READ: Reality TV changed the economics of television and now it's paying for it.
and reality TV has started to eat itself and its innovations are slowing.

■ Where are the Only Children on television?

■ Move over reality TV, this is the era of fake futility television, says The Sydney Morning Herald.

■ Has Discovery's TLC become the most exploitative TV channel?

■ The fantasy book series, Gormenghast, was a mini-series shown on M-Net (DStv 101), now a new updated TV version will be made.

■ 7 great TV shows that remain stuck in development hell and 6 TV shows that lived on after their ending on TV.

■ Australia's Channel Nine banned from the 21st Commonwealth Games - take a guess why.

■ Why the future of the reality series, Project Runway, is in doubt just as M-Net is getting ready to launch Project Runway South Africa on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161).

■ Ooh twist! In Shadowhunters on Netflix, Lilith's Owl is finally unmasked and it's ...

■ Roseanne producer wants viewers to ignore the photos of Roseanne Barr dressed up as Hitler and putting gingerbread Jews cookies into an oven.


■ Vietnam's government wants to know why the pay-TV operator VTVCab abruptly dumped 22 international TV channels without even telling subscribers, including BBC Earth, Discovery Channel, Disney Channel, Animal Planet and National Geographic.


■ So, the Enterprise shows up in the opening credits of the Lost in Space reboot that is coming to Netflix soon - and it reminds a bit of the opening credit sequence of Star Trek: Enterprise too (that featured the same Enterprise).

SABC CENSORSHIP. Public broadcaster's SAfm execs abruptly censor presenter Sakina Kamwendo and pull her off the air halfway through her final morning show.

In the latest shocking recurrence of brutal censorship at the South African public broadcaster, executives at the SABC's SAfm radio station on Friday morning abruptly pulled the brilliant presenter Sakina Kamwendo off the air halfway through presenting her final The Forum @ 8 morning show, once again leaving South Africans asking why they should bother to pay their SABC TV licences to an organisation that tramples on freedom of speech as enshrined by the South African constitution.

The latest censorship scandal at the SABC saw SAfm execs pull the plug on Sakina Kamwendo halfway through her show at 08:30, awkwardly playing just music for half an hour with no explanation to viewers as to what was going on as SABC management shut her down.

In her final morning show, Sakina Kamwendo told SAfm listeners that she was kept in the dark about what her future would be at SAfm when her freelance contract ended. She also spoke about how difficult it's been for SABC staffers who are severely demoralised.

SABC execs didn't want that talk on the public broadcaster and decided to censor the show and immediately pulled Sakina Kamwendo off the air, making things worse as viewers started blasting the SABC and SAfm for removing her without the chance to say goodbye.

The Right to Know Campaign (R2K Campaign) said "The censorship of Sakina Kamwendo is a throwback to the era of Hlaudism. A clear reminder that South Africans must still fight to free the SABC of censorship".

The South African Editors' Forum (Sanef) in a statement slammed the SABC over its latest censorship incident, saying "this incident with Sakina Kamwendo was extremely poorly handled and smacks of censorship" and that Sakina Kamwendo should have been given the space to explain to her listeners what had transpired with her show and with the termination of her contract as the show's presenter.

"Limiting Sakina Kamwendo's freedom of speech and expression in this blatant manner is a serious issue and Sanef would not want to see a return to the SABC’s days of censorship."

"The media industry should be supporting all women in this sector – and especially highly competent, courageous black women such as Sakina Kamwendo. We need to ensure the diversity of voices in the industry. Sanef will be engaging the SABC on the matter."

The SABC's chief operating officer, Chris Maroleng, who was blasted on social media on Friday and Saturday, said its not SABC top management who took the decision to censor Sakina Kamwendo and he blamed SAfm executives for the disgraceful act.

In response to a media enquiry from TVwithThinus, the SABC said that its "executive management has noted with concern the incident that occured on the programme, The Forum@8 on SAfm" and that the SABC's executive management "has requested a full report on the incident and will engage with all involved to get the facts on what really happened and why".

The SABC said it's committed to "deal with this matter in a fair and transparent manner in the interest of the SABC and the public of South Africa".

Social media was flooded with support for Sakina Kamwendo and a non-stop barrage of criticism for the SABC and SAfm over its inept and shocking censorship and bad, amateur and unprofessional handling of the situation.

Veteran TV and radio presenter Redi Tlhabi said "I've seen abusive, toxic, incompetent anchors being treated better than this. Whose ego had to be accommodated at Sakina's expense? Not even a dignified exit after 10 years' service? Pulled off air in middle of show? Never heard of it."

Veteran radio presenter Jenny Crwys-Williams said "the cretins who pulled you off air are the ones looking stupid, they are the ones contemptuous of their audience and they are the ones who need to be sent to a radio gulag to learn what radio is about".

Listener Oageng Tidikwe said "I'm a villager based in the rural part of the Northwest province and I regularly pay my TV licence. Is it that difficult to announce SAfm's new line-up? I can't say I'll listen on the radio because you're likely to play music like you unexpectedly did on Sakina's show."

Listener Neo Nala said "for SAfm to kick her off midair was not just disrespectful to the listeners but immensely disrespectful to her".

"Spent 40 years in radio. Ran 5FM and Good Hope FM. I did strategy for all 18 SABC stations, including SAfm. I've never seen such a shocking decision," said another listener.

Listener WaMphuthi said "the way the SABC and SAfm treated Sakina this morning was disrespectful. There is a way you manage people's exit and what happened this morning is not one of them. Hope Chris Maroleng and team will enlighten us as listeners and be big enough to explain this morning".

Listener Ken Bonant said "I thought Hlaudi Motsoeneng was bad, but this new authoritarian dictatorship at the SABC is astonishing. And then to go and censor the free speech of Sakina Kamwendo's SAfm last show and pull it halfway ... abominable!"

Tshegs said "I thought there'd be a farewell speech from Sakina before the 09:00 news but we were instead left listening to music, which I thought was odd. The SABC must leave Hlaudi tendencies in the past."

Listener Ntobeko Khuluse said "Wow! The more things change at the SABC the more they remain the same. Sakina Kamwendo was not given an opportunity to say her goodbyes on SAfm because the management didn't like what she and listeners were saying, so disappointing. Change, what change Chris Maroleng?"

Listener Aziel Luka Khaile said "Hi ausi, I suspect you've been unceremoniously removed from the studio, they played music non-stop until 09:00. I share your pain as we are equally devastated by your removal as the AMLive host".

Last week on her show, the COPE political party's spokesperson Dennis Bloem called in and said "That's the reason why these people, Chris Maroleng and them, want to remove you from SAfm because these people don't want us to hear such things".

"You are too open, too bold, to expose these types of things. If they are going to remove you and other people, they must know that we will fight. We fought Hlaudi Motsoeneng and now Hlaudi's gone. He will also be gone. We want an open and transparent SABC, not an SABC who's hiding things. You are doing an excellent job for 6 years. I have never listened to SAfm, especially The Forum@8. Now they want to remove you to bring in stooges of them."

SABC top management to now meet with unions after the Communication Workers Union (CWU) also sends a letter to execs demanding answers about allegations of SABC News corruption, Kenneth Makatees, and changes at SABC News and SAfm without consultation.

The SABC's top management will be meeting with trade unions to try and prevent legal action from trade unions who are unhappy over changes at the public broadcaster's SABC News division, including the revamping of the SABC News (DStv 404) channel on MultiChoice's platform and turning SAfm into a talk radio station.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has sent a letter to the SABC's top executives, similar to the Broadcasting, Electronic, Media  Allied Workers Union (Bemawu), also demanding that the SABC stops implementing sweeping changes in its newsroom without proper consultation, and demanding that the SABC release the report into a recent investigation into allegations of corruption in the SABC News editing division.

In the Bemawu petition, 116 SABC News staffers warn over ongoing allegations of victimisation at the SABC, political interference, Hlaudi Motsoeneng "enforcers" who are still active at the SABC, and sex for jobs at the public broadcaster.

In a letter the CWU demands that the SABC release the findings of a recent investigation into allegations of corruption at SABC news editing.

In the letter the CWU's Billy Matsitse says the trade union "note with concern the challenges at news division, and we request your office facilitate an urgent meeting to address the issues".

The CWU, like Bemawu, is also upset about the ongoing presence of the controversial SABC staffer Kenneth Makatees at the SABC's newsroom in Auckland Park, wanting to know why he is here and not back in Cape Town since his period of acting as head of news has lapsed.

"Rumour is that he is earmarked to take over as head of the 24-hour SABC News channel. Positions cannot be created for pals or individuals. We demand that Kenneth Maketees to immediately assume his position in Cape Town," says the CWU.

"We note with concern the ‘turnaround’ at news without consultation of which it has impact on our members. Talent is brought in from our competitors, and what we see is that they bring their own personnel (crew or their own producers). What will happen to our technical people who have been performing such functions?" says the CWU.

The CWU demands that the SABC explain "the rationale behind the SAfm changes" and want to know why the appointment process for the position of SABC political editor is not transparent.

"We know interviews happened, but Corporation decided otherwise and advertised externally. We want to know why is the SABC ignoring talent from within".

The CWU also wants the SABC's top executives to explain changes to news technical staffers' contracts, since contracts of staffers were not renewed during the Henley and news technical staff merger. "As CWU, we feel that we need to act with speed and resolve the matters raised."

The SABC now says it will be meeting with the unions, following an appearance of SABC top management in parliament this week before the portfolio committee on communications.

e.tv says Jeremy Maggs is not leaving eNCA for an anchoring job at the SABC's SAfm radio station.

The veteran TV news anchor Jeremy Maggs is not leaving the South African TV news channel, eNCA (DStv 403).

e.tv tells TVwithThinus that "there's no truth to the reports that Jeremy Maggs is leaving eNCA".

It comes after Sunday tabloid press splashed that SABC insiders at the public broadcaster's SAfm have been chattering excitedly that "veteran presenter Jeremy Maggs might be brought in to do the afternoon drive show called PMLive".

Jeremy Maggs that anchored NewsNight on eNCA, moved to anchor NewsDay in May 2017. NewsDay is eNCA's afternoon block between 13:00 and 16:00.

Meanwhile "PMLive" on SAfm is on between 16:00 and 18:00 on weekdays.

If you were the host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? you can do basically anything, but not even Jeremy Maggs can't be in one place at the one moment and instantly in another place the next, meaning that if he were to do a SAfm show, he'd have to leave eNCA.

According to e.tv Jeremy Maggs is staying put.

eNCA that started out as the eNews Channel in June 2008 will be celebrating a decade on the air soon and is turning 10 years old in June 2018.

'We are independent, we are impartial. And this is how the SABC is going to practice our news gathering," says Phathiswa Magopeni, the SABC's new head of news and current affairs.

The SABC's new head of news and current affairs Phathiswa Magopeni on Sunday declared her editorial stance for the SABC's SABC News division, saying "we are independent, we are impartial. And this is how the SABC is going to practice our news gathering, our dissemination and our processing of news."

Phathiswa Magopeni was interviewed on Sunday morning by Ashraf Garda on SAfm's The Media Show and said "it's important for me that I speak the truth" and mentioned that the SABC's newsroom operations will be reviewed as a matter of urgency to enable greater news gathering integration at the public broadcaster.

On why she decided to ditch eNCA (DStv 403) and move to the SABC as the South African public broadcaster's latest head of news and current affairs, she said "the public interest made the call. I've been here, before, in fact, I started here."

"I've always been attracted to public broadcasting. For me the reason that I'm here, it stems from what happened in the recent past with issues around editorial independence at the SABC."

"Sitting on the other side I was thinking: There's something to be done there. And it was a necessary call to be made".

"This entity belongs to the South African public," said Phathiswa Magopeni. "This is a very crucial and precious resource of the South African public and it has to deliver on its mandate as enshrined in the Broadcasting Act."

"[Me] being here is about strengthening that mandate," she said and noted that the SABC in its editorial news approach needs to remain impartial.

Phathiswa Magopeni, when asked what she makes of the current state of the SABC's news, she said "it's not as bad as people make it. You can tell here that there are professionals, who are committed to their work. All we need to do is to fix the environment because it's the physical spaces and the psychological spaces that have impacted on how people do their work. That's exactly what I'm going to be working on. It is my responsibility to fix that and deal with it."

She said "each journalist within the SABC will have to do introspection, in the way you decide what to broadcast, and what you include in your stories. So that requires us to interrogate our own prejudices, our allegiances and our own stereotypical."

"I'm going to deal with the newsroom issues and I'm going to deal with how journalists work," said Phathiswa Magopeni.

"It is important for me to state what the SABC's editorial position is upfront: We are independent, we are impartial. And this is how the SABC is going to practice our news gathering, our dissemination and our processing of news."

"SABC News is here to serve the public interest, there is no ambiguity about what we need to do," she said, adding that the SABC "is going to take viewer and listener feedback because they are our primary stakeholder. We are going to listen to the public and we are going to try and see if we can work towards what we are meant to do".

"From an operational point of view we're looking at having an integrated SABC newsroom. We're looking at having a single SABC news platform. What I'm trying to get to do is staying away from defining ourselves based on what platforms do - like radio, or it's digital, or it's TV. People don't come to us for that."

"They don't come to buy TV sets from us. They come to us for our news content, so we're going to have to make sure that our platforms are integrated and that we are able to deliver a socially driven product that has consciounce".

"The idea of having an editorial meeting for radio, an editorial meeting for TV and an editorial meeting elsewhere that's going to deal with digital platforms, that's going to be reviewed. We need to have a central point where we need with our content."

Phathiswa Magopeni said the SABC's news division isn't eNCA and that SABC News has a different mandate and is a different platform.

"We have a big scope to cover. It's going to limit us if we mimic what they [eNCA] do because we have resources, we have a large footprint in the country. If we're going to do what they do, we're going to limit our own ability in terms in what South Africans require. So we're going to play our own game."

She said "I know sometimes I will say things that make people uncomfortable but you get what I'm trying to communicate to you. I'm always considerate in the way that I communicate things, but I will not compromise who I am and what I think because I'm trying to please you or make you comfortable."

"So it's important for me that I speak the truth," said Phathiswa Magopeni.

The Big Debate bursts back onto the SABC, with - surprise! - Redi Tlhabi.

The Big Debate has suddenly burst back onto the SABC, instantly becoming the biggest symbol of the public broadcaster’s top executives to signal their serious effort to regain public trust in its current affairs offering and to try and repair it severely dented news output credibility.

As surprising and astounding, is that none other that the veteran and extremely skilled presenter and interviewer Redi Tlhabi is suddenly back as the moderator after she anchored the earlier seasons.

The Big Debate, with several significant updates for the social media and internet age, made its 8th season debut on the exact SABC TV channel – SABC2 – where it disappeared from exactly four years ago.

Asked how the revival of The Big Debate on the SABC came about, Thabiso Bhengu, senior content producer on the show, told the SABC’s Morning Live this week that “when a notorious somebody left the SABC, the SABC was happy to have us back”.

“And we’re happy to be helping the SABC to become what it should be, which is the best public broadcaster in the world,” he said.

In November 2013 The Big Debate – just before it was supposed to start and with three episodes of its 5th season already filmed – was abruptly yanked and permanently removed from the SABC2 schedule just days before broadcast, including an episode devoted to the Marikana Massacre.

The debate show, from Broad Daylight Films Foundation and and executive produced by Ben Cashdan, was culled from the SABC airwaves on the direct orders of the then acting chief operating officer (COO), Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

At the time Hlaudi Motsoeneng was only in the beginning phase of what was to become a sweeping, widening and pervasive censorship drive by the controversial executive.

His later-described “reign of terror” would eventually see the SABC impose draconian newsroom censorship that extended to, and ended with, his shocking ban in 2016 on showing visuals on SABC News of the destruction of property and infrastructure during public protests.   

The SABC said at the time that The Big Debate was “incorrectly commissioned and compromised the editorial oversight of the SABC newsroom”.

The SABC-neutered season of The Big Debate was instantly picked up by eNCA (DStv 403) and e.tv that broadcast three seasons of the lively town hall debate type show that ended with a 7th season in 2016 with Masechaba Lekalake as moderator.

A bold, brazen return of free speech

Now The Big Debate is “back” on SABC2 as a hard-hitting current affairs talk show that had no less than the topic of “State Capture” for its first new episode.

It is something that would have been unheard of on the SABC of just a year ago, with widely disparate guests on The Big Debate ranging from Floyd Shivambu (EFF deputy president) and Mzwanele "Jimmy" Manyi (ANN7 owner) to Vytjie Mentor (former ANC chief whip) – all sitting and debating each other passionately in the black backdrop studio interspersed with a few banners.

“We invited the president, we invited the Guptas, we invited Brian Molefe, so that they can also contribute to this narrative,” said Redi Tlhabi in a refreshing frankness on the SABC airwaves.

“They didn’t take up the invitation. When people are not here it is not because we don’t want to hear them. But for some reason they don’t want to participate in this debate,” she said.

With the show’s bold and brazen return, the SABC is sending a very strong signal and a significant marker that the struggling public broadcaster is working hard on turning around the erosion the past few years of its current affairs programming and news, and the trust in it.

The Big Debate made its debut on Saturday evening and surprised when it started with moderator Redi Tlhabi, who recently left her perch behind the Radio 702 microphone and said that she plans to go to America for further academic studies.

Redi Tlhabi was one of the original moderators of the show’s early seasons before Siki Mgabadeli and Masechaba Lekalake took over, with nobody that ever expected her to return.

As an assertive and extremely knowledgeable and experienced interviewer, the well-liked moderator on Saturday evening brought her credibility and cache to bear on the show, with Redi Tlhabi who instantly elevated the SABC’s current affairs credibility despite The Big Debate being slotted into a doldrum timeslot on television’s least watched day of the week.

Like democracy the first live broadcast episode of The Big Debate was a loud, zany, almost ungovernable, glorious mess.

Sound and some other production problems didn’t dim the cacophony of voices, all excitedly reaching for the roving mic and speaking up with varying opinions while the positive and critical comments of viewers scrolled by.

Some people unexpectedly got up and walked off set despite the floor manager telling them to remain seated. Cellphones rang. It was the most alive, unvarnished and authentic a current affairs TV viewers have seen on the SABC in years.

Big changes

Although already done by commercial broadcasters but with the resource scarce and cash-strapped SABC lagging behind, The Big Debate’s latest season marks a dramatic departure from existing SABC current affairs shows, and is a big improvement and a big step forward for SABC public audience interaction and participation.

For the first time, The Big Debate, done from Shine Studios in Johannesburg, is being broadcast live. It enables social media users to interact directly with the show by sending comments and questions that are being scrolled on screen.

With studio guests sitting in the show’s well-known five-ringed seating pattern, The Big Debate, besides being shown on SABC2, is also being simulcast at the same time on SABC News (DStv 404), as well as on the SABC radio station, SAfm, unlocking bigger public broadcasting synergy.

After the scheduled hour long episode of the show is over, The Big Debate now also continues seamlessly for another hour as a streaming show on YouTube with the various studio guests answering questions and making more comments.

The show also has a call-in hotline for the first time with viewers who can leave Whatsapp voice notes with the producers saying they’re listening to each and every one of them.

Also back, in a sense – and helping to elevate the SABC’s quality of broadcasting although they’re not working for the SABC – are several SABC and SABC News veterans working behind the scenes on the production, like Crystal Orderson for instance as one of the content producers.

The new The Big Debate season on the SABC will cover several topics that might seem mundane or well-worn if the show were broadcast elsewhere but that are literally breath-taking and highly notable given that it will be on the public broadcaster.

Upcoming issues that will be tackled include topics like radical economic transformation (“RET”) this Saturday and in 2018 even the controversial nuclear deal.

SABC2 will broadcast a second episode of The Big Debate this coming Saturday and then go on a production hiatus before returning in February 2018 for the remainder of the season.

BREAKING. Anonymous Africa launches cyber attack against SABC over censorship; takes down SABC, SABC News, SAfm and 5FM websites.

A hacktivist group, Anonymous Africa, has managed to take down the SABC's websites on Sunday - the official sabc.co.za website, its SABC News website at sabc.co.za/news and those of two of its radio stations, SAfm at safm.co.za and 5FM at 5fm.co.za.

All of the sites became unavailable to netizens on Sunday afternoon in a massive cyber attack, starting with SAfm and followed by the rest - that Anonymous Africa said it carried out against the South African public broadcaster over the alleged growing censorship creep happening at the SABC.

While Mr. Robot is a fictional hit cyber hacking drama on M-Net (DStv 101) in which a hacker group targets an evil corporation, the SABC on Sunday afternoon became a real-life hacker drama of its won when its websites were taken down for several hours by Anonymous.

"Attacks against all SABC entities now underway," said a tweet from Anonymous Africa (@zim4thewin) on Sunday, claiming responsibility for the cyber shutdown of the SABC's sites that made its online news service suddenly unavailable.

"You have heard of the Arab Spring? Well now its time for the African Summer!" tweeted Anonymous Africa.

"Attacks against all SABC entities now underway," said Anonymous Africa, a group that claims to be part of the larger hacktivist network Anonymous.

"For those journalists who wanted to see something cool, check out any SABC channel, let us know if any is still up. 5FM, SABC, SAfm," said Anonymous Africa.

Anonymous said it would continue the attack to keep the SABC's websites inaccessible and unavailable until 16:00 on Sunday.

"We will stop the attacks at SABC (for now) at 4pm. We are not done yet, lots of action coming. Things are going to get wild!" said the group.

"Every time the SABC COO censor the SABC more, we are going to come back, and keep hitting harder until the SABC COO can not get up again," tweeted Anonymous Africa.

After the take-down attack of the SABC's websites started, Anonymous started suggesting songs.

The song suggestions made by Anonymous Africa carried its own meaning within the context of what was happening, with Anonymous telling people to listen to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". ACDC's "Thunderstruck", and The Smashing Pumpkins with "Bullet with Butterfly Wings".

Zim4thewin is the same hacktivist who executed a cyber attack on the vulnerable website of the ANC political party in June 2013 for allegedly "enabling Robert Mugabe".

So far there's been no statement from the SABC.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told Fin24 on Sunday afternoon that the public broadcaster is still looking into it. "I need to check with the head of IT‚" Kaizer Kganyago told Fin24.

The SABC is technically designated a "national keypoint" by the South African government, meaning that an asset of a national keypoint of South Africa - places so designated because they require special security protection according to the South African government - has now come under attack and has not been properly protected.

Anonymous Africa said it launched what is called a "Distributed Denial of Service" or "DDos" attack against the broadcaster over its censorship decisions.

In this type of an attack, a website server is flooded with thousands of requests to deliver a website, that eventually disrupts it.

According to Anonymous Africa, its websites shutdown cyber attack against the SABC is the largest DDos attack that South Africa has ever experienced.

The cyber attack that left the SABC's websites dead in the water exposed how vulnerable the South African public broadcaster's online assets are and are raising questions about the type of cyber security used by the SABC and what the broadcaster's cyber attack backup plans are to keep its websites up in case of a DDos attack.

The SABC and its controversial boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng has come under heavy and near universal criticism the past few weeks over highly controversial and shocking decisions at the public broadcaster that critics, academics, media experts, political parties, and civil society groups have all slammed as censorship.

A public petition that has already amassed thousands of votes and keeps growing has been started, asking the broadcasting regulator, Icasa, to invervene and to "stop SABC censorship".

As chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng announced that the SABC's SABC TV News will now censor visuals from public protests to no longer show property destruction and The Editors show on SAfm was abruptly cancelled last Sunday.

Meanwhile Hlaudi Motsoeneng continues to say that the SABC will follow a policy of "good stories" that must be told since the rest of South Africa's media - especially print media - focus "just on the negative".

Later on Sunday afternoon at 4:38pm the websites of the SABC and SABC News became available again, although SAfm and 5FM remained unavailable for hours longer.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told SABC news late on Sunday afternoon that "the technicians are working on it to make sure that they will be back up but also to make sure that they try and stop it from happening again."

"Because if there are people out there who are trying to destabilise SABC, it is a concerning matter, especially because we are a national keypoint," said Kaizer Kganyago.

The SABC's weekly IT and technology magazine show, Network, broadcast live on Sunday evenings on SABC News (DStv 404) completely ignored the news and made no mention and gave no coverage to what happened at the public broadcaster on Sunday and to its websites.

SAfm listeners slam Hlaudi Motsoeneng as an illiterate dictator, while the controversial SABC boss berates Sakina Kamwendo on-air: 'You need to talk like SABC employee'.

Furious listeners on Wednesday morning vented their anger at the SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng with several calling him a dictator, while the controversial boss who struggled to answer basic questions, disappeared after a break.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng's disastrous SAfm interview (listen to it here) is his latest cringe-worthy live interview after he was attacked three weeks ago by LotusFM listeners, made shocking remarks on eNCA's Maggs on Media on Sunday where he slammed media experts for knowing nothing about journalism, and appearing on JacarandaFM on Monday in another mind-boggling interview with Rian van Heerden.

The belligerent chief operating officer (COO) of the SABC who banned visuals of public protests on SABC TV News was supposed to be the guest on SAfm for an hour of The Forum at 8 but was gone after a few callers voiced hefty criticism to suddenly attend to an "emergency" according to presenter Sakina Kamwendo.

As he did on LotusFM, Hlaudi Motsoeneng suddenly berated Sakina Kamwendo live on-air when she asked him basic questions regarding his SABC News censorship decisions that he struggled to answer.

"This thing of intimidating, suppressing the workers there in SABC, it will end. He took away The Editors on Sunday. It's dictatorship," said COPE spokesperson Dennis Bloem.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng said "SABC can't show visuals that can harm the community". He attacked Bloem, saying "Dennis Bloem is not a leader. I don't know who'll vote for Dennis Bloem. He's also a parent. I don't know what kind of parent he is".

'You need to talk like SABC employee'

When Sakina Kamwendo asked Hlaudi Motsoeneng if his new censorship decision meant that the SABC has always been contravening the Broadcasting Act, he berated her on-air for her questions.

"Sakina, when you talk there, you need to talk like SABC employee. You as SABC people need to know what the SABC policy is saying. It is important for you as journalists of the SABC to represent the public, to represent the SABC".

"In any editorial newsroom in South Africa, when journalists sit down and discuss stories, they just discuss negative stories. Even at the SABC. I said 'That can't happen' and I'm not apologetic about it."

'LesediFM has been turned into a clown'

A listener slammed Hlaudi Motsoeneng for his "autocratic style", another one said "our Sesotho radio, LesediFM, has been turned into a clown. It's only clowing there".

Unathi said "Hlaudi wants to do the very same thing that was done by the Apartheid government. And I will not be surprised if I read in the media in the next few days that you [Sakina Kamwendo] have been removed as a journalist or host of this show because this guy is a dictator. He can't dictate to us as a nation what visuals we must see. If a person does not want to see visuals, he must change the channel."

'The man has gone too far'

By 8:35am, after a barrage of caller criticism and probing questions by Sakina Kamwendo, Hlaudi Motsoeneng was suddenly gone.

"This morning on The Forum at 8 we were meant to host Hlaudi Motsoeneng to engage, to unpack the corporation's vision for the future and also to answer some of the questions you've been posing to us that we have not been able to answer," she said.

A caller from Klerksdorp called Motsoeneng a "disaster" who "must be locked away", saying he "must be declared the worst person in the world. We watch Uzalo. Violence. People shooting each other. Is he happy about that?”

Eddie from Odendaalsrus said "the man has gone too far. Hlaudi most stop behaving like a politician".

Ithumeleng in Mahikeng said "please Sakina, I heard Motsoeneng, I'm worried because he was getting angry as you went probing and probing. Be careful when you speak to these guys, tomorrow you might not be sitting in that chair".

Vincent in Cape Town also slammed Hlaudi Motsoeneng's “dictatorship mentality" and said: "I've been hearing everyone calling and disagreeing blatantly with everything Motsoeneng is doing. When kids go to school in thousands they see their schools burnt. So it doesn't matter if SABC airs it or not, they are affected by schools that are burnt".

"You can even see when you interviewed him, he has a dictatorship mentality. He was opposing everything that you were saying, instead of listening to the facts and addressing the facts. He's attacking the person holding the ball, not the ball".

Alex from Johannesburg said "the banning of protest images is intellectually bankrupt" and that "the SABC is screening violent movies. Very violent American movies. The point that they're making about violence is not consistent with the total programming when you watch SABC television".

MultiChoice adds 18 SABC radio channels to DStv's audio package, several regional SABC radio stations available nationally for the first time.

MultiChoice today added 18 of the SABC's radio stations to DStv's audio package which makes these several of these regional radio stations available nationally across South Africa for the first time.

The SABC radio stations, ranging from 5FM, SAfm, Ukhozi Fm, Umhlobo Wenene, Lesedi FM, Lotus FM and Good Hope FM will now be accessible to DStv Premium, DStv Extra, DStv Compact, DStv Family, DStv Access and DStv EasyView subscribers.

The full list of SABC radio stations and their channel numbers added to DStv are:
Metro FM (901)
Channel Africa (902)
Good Hope FM (903)
Ikwekwezi (904)
5FM (905)
Lesedi FM (906)
Ligwalagwala (907)
Lotus FM (908)
Motsweding FM (909)
Munghana Lonene FM (910)
Phalaphala FM (911)
Radio 2000 (912)
RSG (913)
SAfm (914)
Thobela FM (915)
Tru FM (916)
Ukhozi FM (917)
Umhlobo Wenene FM (918)
X-K FM (919)