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".

Daily Maverick reveals it was a bidder for MultiChoice's new local TV news channel on DStv, says that despite 'the all-round silence, no comments' around non-transparent bidding process and bidders list, the questions are not going to go away.

The Daily Maverick online commentary and news analysis publication on Monday morning revealed that it was one of the bidders who applied to run a new local TV news channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform  to replace the corrupt and cancelled "Gupta-news" ANN7/Afro Worldview that was shut down on 20 August.

MultiChoice's highly-fraught and controversial South African TV news channel war is once again hotting up with public calls for Naspers' pay-TV arm to be open and transparent and to stop the secrecy around its TV news channels dealings.

Political parties ranging from the EFF to the Democratic Alliance (DA), as well as broadcasting public pressure groups are calling on MultiChoice to release the Newzroom Africa contract, as well as the information around the various bidders who applied, and their eventual ranking.

It comes after MultiChoice last week announced that it has chosen Newzroom Afrika as the new 24-hour local TV news channel to replace Mzwanele Manyi's dumped Afro Worldview channel on DStv.

Newzroom Afrika will launch in early 2019 on DStv and will take the channel number of 405 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform, the one where ANN7 that turned into Afro Worldview, launched and was dumped a week ago.

Newzroom Afrika, following after eNCA (DStv 403) and SABC News (DStv 404) will be made available to all DStv subscribers, meaning that it will have a wider reach that eMedia Investment's eNCA.

The two directors heading up Newzroom Afrika are Thokozani Nkosi of the production company Eclipse TV, and Thabile Ngwato of Rapid Innovation.

Daily Maverick, run by Branko Brkic as editor-in-chief, on Monday in an opinion piece by Ufrieda Ho, said that the Naspers-owned MultiChoice's dominance in the pay-TV sector "makes its operational decision-making processes matters of public interest".

"It has the de facto monopoly on subscription-based TV, with a 52% share and a penetration of 11.9 million households in 2017. Its influence in deciding who gets to launch a news channel, in the 2019 election year, makes its motives fair game for questions."

Daily Maverick quotes William Bird of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), who says that MultiChoice's bidding process around the new local TV news channel has lacked transparency and openness from the beginning.

"The way MultiChoice is behaving - only telling the little they want to disclose to seem like they are making the effort to be transparent - undermines not just their own, but all, media credibility. It's why we've called for the shortlist of bidders to be made public and for clarity on ownership and who's funding Newzroom Afrika".

Jackie Rakitla, MultiChoice general manager of corporate affairs, in a quote to Daily Maverick said "We are not sharing the shortlist, evaluation and scoring of bidders as we are respecting the privacy of unsuccessful bidders who are employed within other media companies".

Daily Maverick said that "the all-round silence, no comments and off-the-record-only comment has caused rumours to fly - all of them untested - but unanswered, they are not going away".

The SABC's inquiry into SABC News editorial interference now open to the public, final report to be made public as well, after an out-of-court settlement with Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Coalition.

The SABC that initially decided to keep testimony from various people before its inquiry into editorial interference at the South African public broadcaster's SABC News division private and secret has decided to open its inquiry to the public following an out-of-court settlement with Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the SOS Coalition, two non-profit civil society organisations.

Last week MMA and the SOS Coalition filed an urgent application in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, demanding that the SABC open its in-camera inquiry into editorial interference to the public.

"The issue of editorial independence at the SABC is of particular interest to the public given the fact that the SABC is obliged to report news fairly and objectively without undue political interference," the MMA and SOS Coalition argued in its court papers.

The MMA and SOS Coalition further demanded that the SABC must make the schedule and details public of when former and current SABC board members will be appearing before the SABC's inquiry into editorial interference.

MMA and the SOS Coalition also accused Dr Joe Thloloe, chairperson of the SABC's editorial interference inquiry, or reneging on his earlier promise that the inquiry that started on 2 July would be open to the public.

In a statement MMA and the SOS Coalition says that in the out-of-court settlement "the SABC agreed to open some parts of the inquiry to the public and the media".

"In terms of the agreement, written and oral submissions by the SABC's current or former board members and senior executives, and those of third parties will be open to the public and the media. Other staff members and whistleblowers will continue to be protected by the confidentiality that was promised when the inquiry was set up."

"Where a staff member wants his or her written submission to be public he or she is entitled to make their written submission public in their private capacity and/or to give interviews on the contents of their submissions, written or oral."

"Such individual staff members will be responsible for any legal or other consequences arising from the publication of their submissions and the SABC undertakes not to invoke any confidentiality or other similar clause in their employment contracts."

The full version of the final report prepared by the commission of inquiry will also be made public but the identities of confidential witnesses may be redacted from the final report.

The full transcript of all oral hearings conducted by the commission, except for those relating to confidential witnesses, will be made public as well, and the commission's schedule is to be open to the public as well.

"We are delighted that following the discussions all parties have reached an agreement that in our view allows issues of confidentiality to be protected but also ensures that some aspects can be open to the public," says William Bird, MMA director.

SOS Coalition coordinator, Duduetsang Makuse, says "Considering the much publicized turmoil that our public broadcaster has been on, as well as the long road of recovery that lies ahead, it was crucial that this process be open, transparent and inclusive of the South African public, to whom the SABC belongs".

SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng publicly calls for journalists to be licensed for a 6th time; media experts says SABC boss sounds like 'National Party during Apartheid'.

The SABC's controversial and famously matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng has again, for the 6th time publicly, called for the media in South Africa to be regulated and for South African journalists to be licensed.

On eNCA (DStv 403) in an interview with reporter Nickolaus Bauer, the SABC's embattled and scandal-riddled chief operating officer (COO) - who shouldn't actually be speaking to editorial matters of the South African public broadcaster at all since it falls outside his job description - again called for press regulation and for journalists to be policed.

It follows after Hlaudi Motsoeneng's 5th call for the licensing of journalists last week on Insig on kykNET (DStv 144) with Waldimar Pelser - in a cringe-worthy bad interview that commentators are calling "brutal and awful to watch" - with Hlaudi Motsoeneng saying he wants to see journalists regulated.

In that same highly embarrassing interview for Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the SABC, the public broadcaster's second highest executive who is also involved in a lengthy court battle over his controversial appointment, also said the media shouldn't report on crime since it leads to more crime being committed.

Respected and veteran media experts are saying Hlaudi Motsoeneng is completely out of line.

Nickolaus Bauer sat down with veteran newspaper man Joe Thloloe and Press Council executive director, saying the utterances by the SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng is the same as "what the National Party (NP) used to say during the days of Apartheid".

"They were saying if we report on the violence in our streets, violence related to apartheid, we were in fact encouraging terrorism," Joe Thloloe told Nickolaus Bauer on eNCA.

"If you have more positive stories, you will be able to produce the better leaders of tomorrow," Hlaudi Motsoeneng told Nickolaus Bauer in another sit down interview in his report. Hlaudi Motsoeneng warned that South Africa's journalists will be policed in future.

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has 3 lessons for Hlaudi Motsoeneng who says the SABC's matricless boss is placing media freedom in South Africa at risk.

The wonderful William Bird, media expert, wrote this thoughtful and extremely insightful think piece which is a must-read article and also addresses the daft Hlaudi Motsoeneng's latest debilitating and damaging utterances.

Read the whole article, but here's just a few stand-out sentences from William Bird:

'Hlaudi Motsoeneng was simply speaking on issues that he really should not be speaking on for our public broadcaster."

"Areas in which we may expect informed responses from an SABC COO are the SABC's financial position; why the National Intelligence Agency was sweeping the SABC offices in Durban; how the SABC is implementing the recommendations of the auditor-general; or the Special Investigating Unit or even those of the public protector," writes William Bird.

" If it was editorial matters: how about what's going on with the SABC’s revised editorial policies which are now six years overdue. (Yes, SIX years!) The delay is all the more bizarre because they were reportedly finished and revised months ago. Instead we are left gawping at the ludicrous."

"The real issue of why the SABC COO is speaking on these issues is not addressed nor are any answers given by the COO himself. Think about this – how many COOs of any other media house can you name, let alone identify in the media recently? Then ask why that is."

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) 'deeply concerned' over 'act of censorship' at SABC: 'The SABC should be encouraging debate, not limit it'.

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) tells TV with Thinus it is "deeply concerned" by what appears to be "an act of censorship" by the SABC's decision not to broadcast a Democratic Alliance political advert and says "the SABC should be encouraging robust debate, not seeking to limit it".

"MMA is deeply concerned by what appears to be an act of censorship and clear limitation of freedom of speech by the SABC's decision not to broadcast a Democratic Alliance advert that is strongly critical of the ANC," says MMA director William Bird.

"It is during an election period that politicians are more likely to be more strident in their views and critiques of parties. It is during this time that we expect, as citizens, to hear our political parties asserting and putting their views and policies forward".

"Yet the SABC has taken away the ability of the voter to decide for themselves whether to accept or dismiss the DA's critique or not," says William Bird.

"The SABC has provided four main reasons for its decision. For such an important decision to be taken it is critical that we evaluate the reasons."

"The first reason put forward by the SABC is: It is our view that the reference in your television advertisement to police killing our people is cause for incitement to action against the police services".

"While almost certainly calculated to reflect badly on the ANC, and while it may be a generalisation, given the events at Marikana or the death - broadcast on SABC - of Andries Tatane at the hands of the police, it can hardly be said to be untrue nor can it be said to constitute incitement to violence".

"The second reason put forward by the SABC: “The Electoral Code of Conduct includes a clause prohibiting the publication of false information about other candidates or parties".

"The line in the advert is: “200 million rand has been spent on upgrading the Presidents Private house.” Given that the issue of Nkandla is on the national agenda, and given that it has already been the subject of an Inter-Ministerial Task Team and the Public Protector, and given that the amounts have not at any stage been disputed - except that they are in fact higher than R200 million - it seems difficult to argue that the information is false".

"The third reason put forward is that, “the Code of Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) does not permit attacking another product to promote your own".

"Given that we are in an election period which is about making informed choices, where political parties and politicians routinely attack each other's "product" it seems most unlikely that this concept would be applied," says William Bird.

"The final reason put forward is:”We are also of the view that the SABC will not permit personal attacks on any party member or leader by any other party, as is being done in the advertisement in respect of president Jacob Zuma".

"This is extremely difficult to sustain given the nature of political rhetoric and occasions where personal attacks by leaders from all parties are reported in the news, as they should be. In the current instance it is an advertisement and not news and viewers should be credited with the ability to discern between the two".

William Bird says Media Monitoring Africa is "deeply disappointed by the SABC's decision".

"The SABC should be encouraging robust debate, not seeking to limit it. We have seen too many reports in the media in the run up to these elections where different political parties have complained about bias at the SABC".

"MMA has monitored the SABC's coverage of all democratic elections and we are currently monitoring their news and current affairs".

"We have noted in all our previous reports how despite views to the contrary the SABC has managed to perform exceptionally well in many instances but also the content of their programming in previous elections has been overwhelmingly fair".

"We will soon be releasing a fairness assessment of the news coverage across all media being monitored and will be among the first to highlight concerns around fairness if content should they arise".

"We believe the decision not to broadcast the advert will fundamentally undermine perceptions of fairness of the SABC".

SABC IN CHAOS & CRISIS: Parliament must take a firm stand when addressing the crisis at the SABC, says Media Monitoring Africa.

SABC in chaos & crisis: Parliament must take a firm stand when addressing the crisis at the SABC, says Media Monitoring Africa (MMA).

Parliament's portfolio committee on communications, the body in South Africa tasked with oversight of the beleaguered South African public broadcaster, is meeting today to address the massive meltdown and collapse of governance at the SABC.

The committee intends to dissolve what remains of the tattered SABC board and to appoint an interim committee of 5 people.

It follows after the resignations of SABC board chairperson dr. Ben Ngubane, deputy chairperson Thami Ka Plaatjie, followed by 6 further SABC board member resignations when Lumko Mtide, John Danana, Cedric Gina, Desmond Golding, Adv. Cawe Mahlati and Noluthando Gosa also quit.

It leaves the rudderless SABC with only three SABC board members out of 12 - Suzanne Vos, Pippa Green and Claire McNeil - who can't meet, and effective leave the embattled SABC as functioning without any governing body to take important and ongoing decisions.

William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) told the eNCA (DStv 403) that "what we need is for parliament to be bold; for parliament to act strongly and to implement very strong oversight measures and to hold the SABC board to account".

"It's our public broadcaster, and unless we start demanding that of our own public institutions, in five years time we're going to be here saying exactly the same thing," William Bird.

BREAKING. DStv, M-Net and e.tv follows the SABC and also ban the Nando's 'Diversity' TV commercial with a message about xenophobia.

MultiChoice's DStv, M-Net, as well as e.tv have now all jumped on the bandwagon to ban the latest Nando's TV commercial which has a strong message to South Africans about xenophobia.

DStv, e.tv and M-Net which previously showed the new advert this weekend but which the SABC banned on Thursday, says they will no longer do so.

DStv said the advert "could be deemed offensive" and e.tv said that the commercial "trivialised" xenophobia.

"Whilst we understand that the commercial is a parody, we are not conviced that all our viewers will interpret it in the way intended," Chris Hitchings, CEO of DStv Media Sales tells me. DStv Media Sales is the commercial advertising arm which books TV commercials for MultiChoice's DStv channels and M-Net.

"We have a responsibility not to broadcast material that could be deemed offensive to our viewers and we have exercised our rights in this regard."

E.tv also stopped showing the Nando's ad from Tuesday in which basically all of South Africa's residents disappear, leaving a lone Khoisan who says he was in South Africa first. The ad which adds two new products to Nando's "diverse range" has a strong message against xenophobia and says the company celebrates diversity in all its forms.

"E.tv decided last night to suspend the airing of the Nando's xenophobia" advertisement," says Monde Twala, e.tv's head of channels. "e.tv respects creativity and the channel has previously flighted advertisements that have been rejected by other broadcasters."

"In evaluating the advertisement, e.tv came to the conclusion that it trivialised xenophobia which remains a sensitive and volatile issue in South Africa. e.tv reserves the right, at any time, to withdraw a commercial from the channel on grounds of taste or legality," he says.

I asked William Bird, the director of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) on what he's making of this and his thoughts. "I really am quite surprised by the decision," says William Bird. "Obviously they are within their rights to say no, but the question is why?  It seems a rather unusual step to take, to avoid controversy, all the more so given that it has already gone viral on social media."

"Given the issues of xenophobia that we have, I think even if it is an advert that seems to raise a serious issue in its effort to sell us chicken we should err on the side of airing. If it is able to get people to talk about xenophobia even better," says William Bird.

"I find the suggestion that it withheld as it may offend some viewers simply ridiculous for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is clearly a spoof of xenophobic logic taken to extremes with people literally being "proofed" away. Sure it doesn't deal with the nuances of colonialism and land grabs and other questions of identity. But then it is an advert for chicken not a documentary on xenophobia and identity. Secondly to suggest it isn't being shown as it may offend, undermines the media's role - especially the public broadcaster to challenge their audiences."

"Thirdly however, and perhaps most obviously, there are far more adverts that actually do offend viewers that they allow to run - some so bad they offend your intellectual sensibilities, while others plainly reinforce racial and sexual stereotypes," says William Bird. "So the question remains as to why to avoid controversy? Is it perhaps a hangover of The Spear debate?  Either way, one thing which the broadcasters' decision to not broadcast the ad will do, will be to ensure even more people know about it and want to see it," he says.

Tashi Tagg, the noted South African TV critic and pop culture expert from TVSA.co.za tells me that the South African broadcasters' bru-ha-ha to yank Nando's off the air "gives Nando's an edge on the advertising scene".

"It's giving them loads of free advertising and buzz - everyone's talking about them. Their ad is doing well on the internet and they don't have to pay broadcasters to flight it. So its ultimately Nando's who is winning."

Tashi Tagg also says that it gives Nando's "loads of fodder for future campaigns. They can run with the copy: 'Nando's - so spicy ... the broadcasters are too chicken to air our ads," she says.

Below is the full Nando's diversity TV commercial on YouTube where it's gone viral and has amassed more than 220 000 views since Friday when the TV advert was posted.

BREAKING. Media Monitoring Africa says Public Service Broadcasting Bill will turn minister of communications into an ''unprecedented, unconstitutional'' super minister.

You're reading it here first.

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) just came out very strongly on the government and the department of communications's proposed new Public Services Broadcasting Bill the minister of communications, Siphiwe Nyanda, seems dead-set to rush through cabinet and parliament to make it law.

On the eNews Channel (DStv 403) William Bird from the watchdog and independent public pressure group and think tank, came out with very strongly worded language just now in an interview on the eNews Channel's prime time news bulletin NewsNight with Jeremy Maggs.

''In its current format it will make him a super minister and it will give him powers that are unprecedented and that I think quite frankly are unconstitutional,'' said William Bird.

''I think it will have a very significant impact on the editorial integrity of the public service broadcaster. And if it goes through in its current format, it will be a significant step backwards for our democracy.''

William Bird said that  ''the bizarre thing about it, of going through a policy review process, is that there is suddenly a bill and [NOW] there is one other opportunity for comment before it becomes law . . . [WHICH] is a very dangerous precedent being set.''

''Read the bill. The powers that he has are quite extraordinary. And among them they are repeating errors they have seen before. Among them - the big fights we have seen over the last year and a half - is who has the power to fire the CEO [of the SABC]. That same error is repeated.''

''I think one of the greatest pit falls [about introducing a tax to fund the SABC] is people need to at least get a sense of buy-in for it. When it comes to the SABC – one of the reasons I believe there is such resistance to this – is because of the enormous dent to the credibility of the SABC. And until we start to restore that value to it - people start to see its value - they're fighting a losing battle here.''