SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng slams South African journalism over bad stories and 'propaganda'; says 'sometimes you need a brain'.

At the launch event of the expansion of the SABC News channel's footprint into the rest of Africa the SABC's chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng has again took to the podium to slam South African journalism and journalists, threatened that dissenting and disloyal SABC workers will be rooted out, saying that the SABC is doing very well and that the SABC is committed to "positive stories".

As guests drank champagne while the wine flowed at the gold-plated launch event, the controversial Hlaudi Motsoeneng once again berated, bemoaned South African journalists and he said are misleading the country, and said the SABC isn't going to report "propaganda about negative stories".

The SABC was celebrating the expansion of the footprint of the public broadcaster's 24-hour TV news channel SABC News (DStv 404) into the rest of Africa.

SABc News was launched in August 2013 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform as part of a controversial two channel deal and the SABC's second try at a 24-hour news channel since its first version, SABC News International, folded in March 2010 after three years and a loss of millions of rands.

The SABC's launch event held at Midrand in Johannesburg where the SABC choir sang, was attended by president Jacob Zuma, who was flanked at table 1 by minister of communications, Faith Muthambi and Hlaudi Motsoeneng - all three of whom kept leaning in and chatting excitedly with each other all through the hour and a half long long event.

Other guests spotted included president of the Pan African parliament, Bethel Amadi; acting SABC board chairperson, Prof Mbulaheni Maghuve; the SABC's head of news Jimi Matthews; Veronah Duwarkah, the SABC's group executive in charge of television; Sophie Mokoena, SABC News' foreign news editor, and the few SABC board members who are left following the communication minister's purge of the board earlier this year.

Two weeks after a bizarre speech at the launch of the SABC's rerun channel SABC Encore (DStv 156) on DStv, Hlaudi Motsoeneng once again ran to the podium to deliver another eyebrow-raising speech.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng is currently embroiled in a lengthy court battle after the high court already twice ordered that he be suspended. He is appealing the judgment again.

"SABC, we are different from other media house," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng. "When we report about the news, we are not apologetic about positive stories."

Then, as he did last year, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, again slammed South African journalism with generalisations.

"Our own journalists, they deal with propaganda. When you go abroad, most journalists they don't write bad about their country. But when you come to South Africa, and some of the African countries, our own journalists talk very bad about their own country," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

"They don't educate and inform people. If you read, they are always misleading."

"Sometimes you need brain. It's good to have all those qualifications, but you need brain to think. If you analyse when people write - and those people are having all these diplomas and degrees - I'm going to give you example."

"One of the papers said SABC has hide R500 million. If you analyse that what they mean is the CFO of the SABC has hide R5 million [sic], but if you check the books of the SABC, the reality is when we write off all those policies that are not relevant to the business, technically, the auditor-general they will pitch that equals to R500 million."

"But when people talk it seems as if SABC has really hide money. But these are people who are very educated. I wonder, whether they think before they do, whatever they do. That is misleading the country".

"I still believe we need to report good stories; tell South African stories," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng. "SABC is doing very well, financially. We are stable. People who are just talking about SABC collapsing; they are going to collapse themselves. Not SABC."

"Even within the organisation, some of them are not loyal. But we are going to make sure that we deal with people who are not loyal," warned Hlaudi Motsoeneng of SABC workers who he said is sabotaging the public broadcaster. "We are not going to be apologetic."

"In short, SABC we are going to reflect Africa as Africa. We are not going to come with propaganda about negative stories, people killing each other as if we are killing each other."

"If there's no water in Soweto, if you are a good journalist, you will go to Orlando. There's no water in Orlando. But in Diepkloof, there's water. That is what we call balanced story," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

President Jacob Zuma said "we are not saying that the SABC News, channel 404, should ignore problems when they arise in the continent."

"What we are saying is that the public broadcaster should balance whatever stories of mayhem, with stories that also show that while there is disaster in one small corner of the continent, the majority there live a normal life."

"It should be stories that tell the full African story, and not the unbalanced, negative scripts that have become the order of the day for years," said president Zuma.

SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng: People 'should carry on paying TV licence'; 'you are not paying the salary of personnel at this organisation'.

The SABC's famously matricless chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng who the high court ordered to be suspended at the SABC end of 2014 but who hasn't been, today asked South African TV viewers to pay their SABC TV licences "because you're not paying the salary of personnel at this organisation".

In what the SABC billed as the "first" in a new series of "quarterly media briefings"by the South African public broadcaster, the controversial Hlaudi Motsoeneng said the SABC will be going on a national campaign to tell South Africans that they have to pay their SABC TV licences.

The SABC says that it wants to increase its local content and that it needs the revenue from SABC TV licences to create and channel more local TV content.

"People should understand you are not paying the salary of personnel at this organisation," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng. "We don't even touch that money."

"You are paying for content, you are paying for universal access," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

"We also applaud those people who are paying TV licence. And they should carry on paying TV licence."

"By paying TV licence you are contributing to the public service mandate of the organisation. If you look our own programmes. We have different kinds of programmes. Some of those programmes are educational. Some are entertaining. Some are informing. So we must pay TV licence," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

"It is also important that SABC contribute to the growth of production houses. SABC contribute to the employment of the people in this country. But we don't want people in Gauteng only to benefit," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

As in 2009 the SABC is once again investigating the possibility of alternatives to the SABC TV licence fees, like collecting revenue from pay-TV providers like for instance MultiChoice, M-Net and On Digital Media (ODM), something they previously vehemently opposed.

In October last year the SABC failed to tell parliament what exactly it did with R3.39 billion over the past three years which are billed as "irregular expenditure".and which the Auditor General's (AG) office says wasn't spent properly - R900 million of which was improperly spent in 2013/2014 alone.

 In 2014 the SABC received its 4th consecutive annual qualified audit from the AG.

In 2014 the SABC told parliament that it wants to raise SABC TV licence fees in line with inflation. SABC TV licences currently brings in around R1 billion for the public broadcaster per year.

In 2014 the Public Protector's final report into Hlaudi Motsoeneng found that he "should never have been appointed at the SABC", found that he lied and admitted to lying in a recorded interview about having a matric certificate, and implicated him in various instances of maladministration.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng's salary skyrocketed the past four years at the SABC  - he is now paid R2.5 million more per year than what he was in 2010 - an eight fold increase in four years.

At the SABC's press briefing today Veronah Duwarkah, the SABC's group executive for television said that "a big portion of our budgets are actually allocated to local content".

"More than 70% of our schedules are local. That includes news and sport in terms of the number of minutes that we broadcast".

"From a pricing point of view more than R1 billion is spent only on local content. And I'm not talking about news and sports, there are more billions spent on that. The international content is a very small contingent. A couple of years ago, yes, we had a lot of content from overseas but we cannot waste money anymore," said Veronah Duwarkah.

At the SABC's press briefing the broadcaster admitted that the new Generations - The Legacy on SABC1 has much lower ratings than before it fired the entire principal cast and took the soap off the air for 2 months in 2014.

The SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng also said that president Jacob Zuma is deserves the excessive coverage on the SABC because he is the president of South Africa.

BREAKING. SABC admits new Generations The Legacy on SABC1 is a ratings dud; says president Jacob Zuma covered excessively because he's president.

In what the SABC billed as the "first" in a new series of "quarterly media briefings"by the South African public broadcaster's famously matricless chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng and other SABC executives, the SABC admitted that the "new" and reset, yet struggling, Generations - The Legacy on SABC1 is a ratings dud and defended its excessive positive of president Jacob Zuma, saying it's "because he is the president".

The SABC also decided to ask South Africans to pay their SABC TV licences, despite being unable to tell the South African government and parliament in October 2014 what it did with R3.39 billion which the SABC classified as "irregular spending" over the past three years.

Although planned longer in advance than just a day, the SABC only alerted the South African press yesterday at 15:30 about "the corporation's first quarterly media briefing" scheduled for 11:00 today at the SABC's Aucklandpark headquarters.

Newsrooms with full news diaries and limited capacity journalists scrambled to suddenly designate journalists to cover the SABC briefing on Wednesday morning.

The SABC admitted for the first time that its reset soap Generations - The Legacy is suffering in the ratings and is far off from its previous incantation, as first reported by TV with Thinus a month and a half ago in December 2014, as the soap sagged and shed millions of viewers.

Generations - The Legacy returned on 1 December 2014  to SABC1 after abruptly ending production in October when MMSV Productions and the SABC fired the entire principal cast and reset the soap with new actors. Viewers and critics blasted the show who've since tuned out in droves.

Veronah Duwarkah, the SABC's group executive in charge of television, and Hlaudi Motsoeneng admitted at the SABC's quarterly briefing that Generations - The Legacy is down from its erstwhile ratings glory and suffered a significant viewer decline.

"It's not doing as great as it was previously," said Veronah Duwarkah.

"Generations may not do well but we believe it will improve. We are able to generate revenue here, but I cannot tell you how," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

The SABC blamed the AFCON soccer tournament being broadcast on SABC1 with Generations - The Legacy shunted to SABC2 for the ratings drop (although the ratings fell immediately in December 2014 long before AFCON started), as well as load shedding with Eskom being unable to provide electricity to TV households.

Yet the SABC knew long in advance that it had secured the rights for AFCON, but still went ahead to start Generations - The Legacy during December - traditionally the lowest viewing period per year.

The SABC also decided far in advance to move the troubled Mfundi Vundla production to SABC2 in January 2015 just a month after it started again on SABC1 in December 2014, although SABC executives could have known from past experience with its so-called "transversal strategy" that a programming change within a month would negatively impact on a soap like Generations' viewership figures.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng defended the SABC's large and excessive coverage of president Jacob Zuma who is basically daily the lead story on the SABC News' TV news bulletins.

"When we deal with content within the organisation, there is no way where we ignore the president of the country," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

"He's getting more time because he is the president of the country," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng. "We always do that, because he is running the country. When the president talks, everything he does affects all of us. If you want to be president tomorrow, we will do the same thing for you".

The SABC and SABC News didn't cover or report on any of these two issues out of its own quarterly briefing today on SABC television or TV news, deliberately choosing to only focus on and report that Hlaudi Motsoeneng is asking viewers to pay their SABC TV licences.

The SABC said nothing about when the SABC's general entertainment TV channel is set to start on MultiChoice's DStv, which was supposed to start in December 2013, and which has now been delayed for over a year.

The SABC said nothing about why the SABC has not complied with the High Court order that Hlaudi Motsoeneng should be suspended "immediately" and which was handed down at the end of last year.

The SABC didn't want to talk about Siyaya, the new pay-TV consortium set to launch soon and which scooped up the rights to Bafana Bafana matches which used to be broadcast on the SABC.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng said "I do not want to talk about Siyaya. We have a relationship with Safa South African Football Association) and we have a team talking to them".

SABC internal memorandum: Schizophrenic 'SABC2 schedule only survives on 7de Laan and Muvhango; other than that prime time schedule is weak'.

The SABC2 schedule only survives on two pillar programmes - the Afrikaans soap 7de Laan at 18:30 and the Venda soap at 21:00, "other than that the prime time schedule is weak".

So wrote Leo Manne, the SABC's general manager for the public broadcaster's TV channels in an internal memorandum he prepared on 30 June to Veronah Duwarkah, the SABC's group executive in charge of television, as "motivation for schedule changes risks and mitigations".

The SABC's has come in for sharp criticism and scorn from viewers after permanently moving the bulk of Afrikaans programming and the SABC's only daily Afrikaans TV news bulletin from SABC2 to SABC3 permanently.

SABC3 however has the smallest national footprint of all of the SABC's TV channels, making the programming unavailable and inaccessible for millions of South African TV households who can't watch it even if they want to because they don't receive the broadcast signal.

"The schizophrenic nature of the SABC2 schedule" according to the internal memorandum and the content offering to two very unrelated audience segments - being Sotho and Afrikaans viewers "has seen e.tv overtake SABC2 as the second most watched TV channel in South Africa over the years to the third most watched with consistent declines continuing".

"Ignoring these declines will severely compromise the viability of the SABC TV network to deliver against its set audience and revenue targets," reads the internal SABC memorandum.

Although the SABC earlier this week said Afrikaans has nothing to do with the dramatic scheduling changes, in the internal memorandum Leo Manne writes that "despite a very strong lead in from 7de Laan, the 19:00 Afrikaans news has been losing audiences over the last couple of years".

"The Afrikaans block of programing at 19:30 to 20:30 which includes the Afrikaans dramas on Tuesday and 50/50 on Mondays loses even more audiences".

"At 20:30 the Sotho news bulletin struggles to perform because of a very weak lead-in from the Afrikaans content".

The SABC's total share of TV audience during primetime for the months of March, April and May 2014, with e.tv and even DStv which is a pay-TV offering outperforming entire channels like SABC2 and SABC3 according to the SABC's internal memorandum.


According to the internal memorandum, the SABC's chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng, held a SABC content summit in November 2013 where the SABC Television division presented its strategy forward for the next three years, and which included looking at trends and factors influencing the changing viewing patters across the South African TV landscape.

Schedule and content decisions for SABC Television were proposed and approved at this SABC content summit in November 2013.

How the SABC's various TV news bulletins fare and compare in terms of viewership (AR's or audience ratings) in the month of May 2014, compared to other TV channels and programming, according to the SABC's internal memorandum.

On SABC1 "18:30 is the weakest part of the prime time schedule and hence the introduction of anew local soap offering," says the memo.

As can be seen from the graphic above, the yellow column in the back row is the Nguni TV news bulletin on SABC1. 

" The Nguni bulletin is the strongest bulletin on the network and moving it to the 19:00 slot [on SABC1] would weaken the strong e.tv bulletin," according to the SABC's internal memorandum.

On SABC3, the SABC memorandum reveals that "the one hour news block has lost significant audience share between 18:30 and 19:30 creating a very weakened lead in for Isidingo at 19:00 despite it being the third best performing program in prime time after Days and Bold".

"The shortening of the 18:30 news bulletin will be revived in the schedule followed by an improved Isidingo and then followed by the Afrikaans News," Leo Manne wrote in the internal memorandum.

"The movement of the Afrikaans drama's and other content will, within a year of this strategy, ensure a very competitive and advertising attractive audience of LSM 8-10 audiences, while SABC1 and SABC2 deliver mass audiences in LSM 5-8".

The SABC was and is also well aware that SABC3's footprint is smaller and that moving the Afrikaans TV news and other content to SABC3 would take it out of reach of some viewers, but calls it a "current minor challenge".

"The roll out of both digital terrestrial television (DTT) and direct-to-home satellite (DTH) within a year will ensure that any areas not covered by our current transmitter network are filled," states the internal memorandum".

"This current minor challenge though cannot and should not deter the SABC from protecting its current business as it builds for niche multi-channel and platform digital future where special interest groups can be adequately served".

In written media enquiries TV with Thinus asked the SABC whether the broadcaster wants to comment on the memorandum and its content or explain anything about it. The SABC declined to respond.

Bessie Tugwana is back as the permanent channel head of SABC2, following her stint as the acting head of television at the SABC.

You're reading it here first. 

Bessie Tugwana is back as the permanent channel head of SABC2, I can report.

Bessie Tugwana who used to be the SABC2 channel head, was elevated at the beginning of 2011 to the newly created position of head of television at the SABC (but in an acting capacity) when the SABC's top brass decided to reorganize the SABC's services from a public and commercial services separation, to a radio and TV division.

Previously there was the public TV channels SABC1 and SABC2 on one side with public radio stations, with the commercial TV channel SABC3 and the commercial radio stations of the public broadcaster on the other side.

At the beginning of 2011 as part of the SABC's turnaround strategy, all three TV stations were lumped together with a new head of television; and all the radio stations were grouped together with a head of radio.

When Bessie Tugwana was given the position in an acting capacity, Pulane Tshabalala took over in February 2011 as the new acting channel head of SABC2.

Bessie Tugwana is now back as the "real" channel head of SABC2, following the appointment of Veronah Duwarkah at the end of last week, and with immediate effect as the new permanent head of television at the SABC.