In a country like South Africa where one political party has so long dominated electoral politics (first it was the National Party for over forty years and now the ANC for fifteen) it is perhaps understandable that ordinary people will begin to conflate the party and the state.
Unfortunately it is also dangerous and undermines the establishment of a democratic culture. South Africans all think they believe in democracy but there is not much evidence to support such a view. We have not had a long history of competitive elections – even when South Africa was still an oppressive apartheid state and only white people could vote for their whites only parties.
At least politicians and others in the public eye should pretend to understand and respect the difference between the governing party and the state (something several commentators on this Blog have embarrassingly failed to do over the years).
Sadly, this does not always happen. One of the most troubling and shocking examples of this conflation of state and party comes to us via SABC Board member, Bheki Khumalo. Reporting on the ongoing disaster that is the SABC, the Sunday Independent reported as follows:
Referring to Mkonza’s comments that she would step down only if the shareholder [of the SABC] decided that she was not fit to serve, Khumalo said the shareholder was the ANC, and that this was not a board of Woolworths or Chicken Licken and that the board should get urgent legal advice on the matter.
Oops, Mr Khumalo, you are so embarrassingly wrong that if I was you I would lock myself in a dark room for a week to hide away from the shame of making such an utter fool of myself. One wonders whether he learnt nothing during his stint as spokesperson for former President Thabo Mbeki, but one fears that he might have learnt too well.
Of course, the shareholder of the SABC is not the ANC. The shareholder is the government, who happens, just for the moment, to be run by the ANC. Come the next election (or the one after that, or the one after that) us voters will throw out the ANC and a new party will govern South Africa. In a democracy voters always get tired of a governing party who will inevitably become more corrupt and inept as time goes by. It is a plain fact as obvious as the earth is round.
When the ANC is eventually thrown out by the voters, the shareholder of the SABC will remain the government – regardless of who will then form the government.
The statement by Khumalo is a howling Freudian slip and says much about how many ANC “deployees” see their jobs in government departments, on parastatal boards and on boards of a state broadcaster like the SABC.
Like that old democrat King Louis XIV of France, who said L’État c’est Moi (I am the State), people like Mr Khumalo (pity he never obtained a Phd because I would have loved to call him Doctor Khumalo) think that they are the state because they belong to a party who just happens to have gained the most votes in the last election.
The reason why this is so dangerous is that when this idea takes root that the state and the party is really the same thing, it becomes more and more difficult for some members of the party who are temporarily in charge to remember that they are only there because us voters put them there.
In such an atmosphere one starts to believe that only you and your party can run the country and when you are then thrown out by the voters you might be tempted to act like the authorities in that wonderful Poem by Bertold Brecht called The Solution:
After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
That is why Khumalo’s statement is so dangerous. That is also why Khumalo should of course immediately be asked to resign for making a statement that does not only demonstrate a breathtaking ignorance of the legal framework under which the SABC Board operates, but also a dangerous anti-democratic attitude.
The fact that this is not going to happen, says much about the state of democarcy in South Africa.
The entire SABC should just shut down. Reading is far more entertaining.
I agree with you Herman Lategan and they have such crap on any way not worth having on at any time. A good book is always better than a a little square box.
Another fool proving the dangers of appointing people by being loyal to the party and definately not being capacitated to do their jobs. Almost everyone in any portfolio who has been put by the ANC seems to be ill-suited for those portfolios you’d be forgiven for thinking the ANC deploys only those which it considers unsuitable for their portfolios.
Sne, a bit of a sweeping statement?
Please Lord save me from yet another ANC bashing discussion…
Off with their heads! Oops, sorry, the poem and King Louis stuff got me feeling all revolutionary.
Nice post Pierre. Love the irony and references.
I think the fact that Sne can make a statement like that demonstrates how the impression that the ANC does operate in that very way has been instilled in us. I have trouble not making exactly the same kind of generalisation even though I know it to be not entirely true. In this case the exception does not disprove the rule, or so it seems to me…
Who cares what they do with the SABC? The advertising revenue has already voted with its feet because the viewers have voted with theirs. The SABC is going the same way as SAA – another financial black hole run by a pack of commercial incompetents. Unless something is done about how they are run both will eventually be sucked into oblivion. The sooner this happens the better. I stopped flying SAA years ago – even the budget airlines are more friendly and efficient (but maybe they need to be not having a large sponsor) and i won’t buy an SAA ticket unless there is no alternative at all. I stopped watching SABC years ago – just compare it with satellite and see. Both are lousy products and deserve to tank. Like General Motors. Not the deepest pockets in the world can indefinitely support a losuy product.
The SABC is rather important as its various radio and television stations still have by far the largest audience in South Africa. That is why people who blame “the media” for negative perceptions about the ANC are talking through their nose. One of the reasons the ANC wins 65% of the vote is because most voters receive all their news from the SABC radio and television news broadcasts.
The solution is simple. Why does the state need a broadcaster in the first place? Privatise, decentralise, deregulate and see healthy, much needed competition from people who are creating jobs for themselves.
@ Pierre,
Given that last statement, one would think that the government (read ANC) would have done everything it could to ensure that the SABC remained in a healthy financial situation. Alas, yet another parastatal falls victime to mismanagement, cronyism, fraud and corruption, with a good dose of sheer ineptitude thrown in.
When are the ANC going to realise that if they run government like a business instead of a dynasty, we might actually start to see good governance and proper service delivery?
I guess when you focus on narrow political agendas then you lose sight of the commercial realities, which is exactly what the ANC’s liberation movement policies and mentality have done in so many spehres of public and commercial life…
[[[Pierre De Vos // Jun 2, 2009 at 4:22 pm
The SABC is rather important as its various radio and television stations still have by far the largest audience in South Africa. That is why people who blame “the media” for negative perceptions about the ANC are talking through their nose. One of the reasons the ANC wins 65% of the vote is because most voters receive all their news from the SABC radio and television news broadcasts.]]]
Exactly Pierre – and they still can’t make enough money to pay their debts. The reason is the old 80/20 – you make 80% of your income off 20% of your customers and that 20% (which the advertising industry monitors closely) has moved on from the SABC. It’s gross mismanagement and idiocy which has resulted in this mess. That and party politics (the brouhaha about the Zapiro satire refers for example). Have you seen the rubbish they show nowadays? One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. And then they try to force you to buy a TV license to support this insult to the intellect. If it goes under then people will simply use the next option available. E TV is free to air and makes money. Why can’t the SABC? Let it die I say. I really couldn’t care less – in fact I would celebrate the day as it simply opens up the market more to those who are fit enough to survive and end this whole “jobs for incompetent pals” regime. Furthermore, as you say, the perceptions and intellectual undertstanding of many South Africans of current events is informed by this very media – it’s hard to believe that a commercial successor will not do a better job (and less politically biased probably) than this crowd.
Prof, interesting article but find the comments are bit all over. There are a few things people do not appreciate about the separation on institutions in democracy, even some politicians do not: separation of power between executive, legislature and judiciary; as you have argued separation of state and party; and separation of state and church. Without these, oppression, especially of the weak, can easily occur.
On the SABC, it is not as simple and as clear ans some view it. The SABC is a public broadacster. Its public broadcasting obligations have financial implications that can not and should not be at the whims of the market (ad revenues). However, 87% of SABC revenues are from ad revenues and the TV license fee is very small portion. If one compares this to the BBC which has the same mandate, then one notices that of the £5bn revenues, £3.3 are from TV license fee. However, the subsidiary of BBC that carries the mandate has revenues of £3.6. In Germany, the public broadcaster is state funded and is limited on how much time it can allocate to ads per hour. This removes profit motive. So the funding model of SABC does not support the mandate. If one looks at some of the SABC commercial radio stations on their own, one sees that they are profitable but have to subsidize SABC Group.
One may is entitled to say SABC is badly run, especially when they have facts. However, one has to ask if SABC has a viable business model, given that it has to compete with commercial entities that can decide their strategy with not public boradcasting obligations. One wonders if it is not under funded for the obligations it carries? Cost cutting can go a little far but if the business model is wrong, they can never get out of the mess.
What we, as a nation, must care more about is the independence of the public broadcaster. But I hear you ask indepence from who? Firstly, from the Government otherwise the public broadcaster will end up serving Government and ruling party where there is no separation of State and Government. Secondly, from the private sector, otherwise the public broadcaster will end up serving profit motive (maximise ad revenue) to the detriment of public broadcasting mandate.
Prof.,
It may be sweeping but it contains essential human truth.
…wait good people, wait…The SABC funding model is as follows currently: 80% from Advertising, 17% from TV licences( which most people dont pay) and 3% from Government. When recession reared its ugly head last year most companies reduced their adverts, hence a decline in revenue – remember this is where revenue is mostly generated. Secondly, even more people are now not paying their TV lic’s. So, it would go without saying that the SABC couldnt have projected this, it is purely not the fault of their own making, neither it is for the gov led by the African National Congress – the people’s parliament. What we should rather debate here, is to have the SABC funded at least 75 percent by gov so as to enhance its capacity to carry out its mandate – that of educating, entertaining, informing the masses of our people in the language of the choice. Just cut this ANC bashing all the time, will yá? thanx comrades.
The issue isn’t the SABC. The issue is the fact that many people who occupy these lofty and democratically important positions, in all spheres of government and into parastatal organisations such as the SABC, Eskom, etc seem to believe that they are only responsible to the ANC, and act accordingly. The blacklisting of political commentators by that ridulous Zikalala at the SABC, the Zapiro debacle (again at the SABC), etc are just symptoms of this much bigger problem.
This is one of the many problems with ‘cadre deployment’ – people are rewarded with positions because they belong to the right organisation as opposed to possessing the right skill set and experience (most of the time), and therefore believe that their primary duty is to the organisation that ensured their cushy paycheck and benefits. Therefore tenders are awarded to companies which are owned by ANC members regardless of the merits of tenders, BEE is used as an excuse to get rich, and things like Petrolgate happen.
This was also a problem in Apartheid, and as I recall, the ANC (along with other organisations) had a big issue with it…ironically…
Haai man!…Can somebody tell me exactly what we are supposed to be debating here, coz I getting confused now with the ‘issue’ is this the ‘issue’ is that. What is shocking to me, is that whenever Prof and his ilk, or is it ink?, want to bash the goverment, they too, wrongly bash the ANC (entlik the peoples parliament. So if Bheki resigns then Prof (and his ink, or rather, ilk) must also resign.
Who want to be a shareholder of the SABC ? The ANC and its MK for years tried to sabotage Eskom ( Power supplies), Rubbish bins and Wimpy bars! Well it took them now 15 years to legally run these services to the ground. Now its only Wimpy Bar left! Comen cadres go for Wimpy
Glory and many viva’s
Joe Public: “Its public broadcasting obligations”. Which are exactly what? To dumb down society, misinform, waste money, provide jobs for pals and toe the political line?
Pastor Ray Mc Oily or whoever you are
Why does your website contain racist and obnoxious articles? Are you hoping to reverse history?
I found this on the website belonging to ‘Pastor Ray Mc Oily’
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/2009/june/michelleobamaquestion.html
CD, if you read my closing paragraph, I speak of the independence of the public broadcaster. That independence will ensure what you sarcastically talk about does not occur.
Spuy, the Prof raised the matter of Bheki Khumalo confusing the state and the party. He has expanded a lot on this. Whilst he has not raised the issue of independence of the public broadcaster, I have raised it and even expanded on it.
A public broadcaster cannot be expected to be independent from its sponsor, ie the ANC-led government. It would then have to bite the hand that feeds. This is not a question of money – the SABC has enough of that and has access to as much money as it needs. I think the tussle between the Mbeki-appointed SABC board and the SABC-board that the Zuma faction wanted is what is causing the confusion at the moment.
A public broadcaster cannot fulfil its role as serving the public’s broadcasting needs if it is funded and maintained by the state. The conflict of interest between the soapies you want to see and the political claptrap of 15 years of democracy and liberation and freedom is too great.
If the ANC brought us freedom, why are they trying to censor Zapiro? This move makes sense if you stop thinking about the idealistic notion of a public broadcaster and start seeing the SABC for what it really is – the ANC’s Big Lie machine, straight from Joseph Goebbels’s Propaganda 101 textbook.
Garg, you are being a bit hysterical. Compared to 20 years ago the SABC is a bastion of open debate and freedom. In my experience the fight between Mbeki and Zuma has made the SABC news more even handed and fair. This does not mean there is too much ANC influence, but it could have been far worse. What we need is a credible SABC Board. Professional people committed to public broadcasting and the new South Africa, but not ANC deployees who take instructions from Luthuli House.
Prof, fair enough the appointment of a credible board is a good start. But how do we ensure that the public broadcaster is not driven by commercial interest as it relies on ad revenues for more than 80% of its revenues? Secondly, if funded by Government, how do we ensure that such funding is available to the SABC irrespective of how critical the SABC is of Government?
The TV license fee might not be enough to fund SABC for the following reasons: the collection rate is poor; the fee itself might not be adequate. The BBC has a license violation rate of only 5% because of the way they collect TV license fee and their fee is a bit steep (£47 per annum for black and white TV set).
Prof said:
“When the ANC is eventually thrown out by the voters”
There is hope for South Africa still!
Dumisani Mkhize // Jun 3, 2009 at 8:22 am
Dumisani, I agree with your take on Pastor Ray Mc Oily. What a shocker!!!!!!!
This man must be the white ozoneblue…
?
@ Dumisani Mkhize
*sigh*
lol Landoverbaptist and the dear pastor are satire as even the most casual reading would have told you. Don’t take the world so seriously. And just in case you missed it … “The Landover Baptist Church is a complete work of fiction. It is a satire/parody” (http://www.landoverbaptist.org/tos.html )
As with every single large parastatal institution like South African Scareways, Eisshkom and Trashnet (the list simply goes on and on and on) the ANCBC is now also bankrupt. For months, producers of soap operas and numerous other suppliers to the SABC have begged & pleaded for payment but to no avail. As recently as beginning March, SA law firm Barry Aaron Inc threatened to have the SABC liquidated and proceeded with legal action after which he was quickly paid.
Incompetent and corrupt ANCBC pissed away an incredible R 800 million (about US $100 Million) in the past fiscal year alone. This is in spite of massive revenues from advertising as well as TV licensing fees – South Africa is one of the few countries in the world where citizens have to pay ludicrous annual license fees for the privilege of watching an unending stream of poorly produced anti-white propaganda.
Even if you don’t watch SABC trash and stick only to pay channels, you STILL have to pay license fees – its impossible to buy a TV without a current & paid up SABC TV licence. The pathetic program fare consists mainly of 1) endless talking heads, interspersed with 2) hours and hours of African & rap music and 3) soul-numbing, mindless soap operas.
TV news is a joke. Viewers are treated to long blackouts. Staff inside the studio editing / final control rooms roll tape footage completely irrelevant to the topic at hand, which 90% of the time deal with the stale rhetoric by comrade so & so of the SA Communist Party, ANC or COSATU.
What passes for actuality programming primarily consists of a) the legacy of colonialism; b) the legacy of Apartheid; 3) white racism and 4) First World countries refusing to pay reparations, or how Europe and the US are “keeping the black man down” and will not grease permanently outstretched hands. They used to run feed from CNN and BBC between 12AM and 5AM but this was considered too Eurocentric and pro-West, so those contracts were quickly cancelled. The arrogant SABC then thought they could take on CNN & Sky and launched their own “International Africa” 24 hour news channel, broadcast by SABC and available on satellite but this exercise in typical ANC style is running at a loss of hundreds of thousands of rands monthly.
Presiding over all this (well, until recently) was comrade Doctor “Snuki (sic) Zikalala”, who earned the stupendous monthly salary of R 192 000 (2.3Million PA) – plus generous perks) made the career-ending move of brown-nosing comrade Thabo Mbeki a bit too much, and since the Zuma gang seized power, got his worthless ass kicked out in double time.
Friends of mine who formerly worked at the SABC until they couldn’t tolerate it any longer told me shocking tales – how a wealth of archived tapes & newsreels were deliberately vandalised & destroyed, especially Afrikaans TV & radio programming between 1975 and 1994. Affirmative action employees started bringing paraffin stoves to work, and were cooking pap & chicken feet, (or that other favourite, sheep’s stomachs & intestines) inside their offices, stinking up the place & leading to many fires that thankfully were put out quickly until the practice was banned. Now they gorge themselves in a luxurious canteen, stuffing their fat faces with pap & steak, pap & curry, pap & whatever, all paid for by stupid TV license holders.
SABC-owned apartment complexes subsidised for their employees (like the one near Brightwater Commons – formerly the Randburg Waterfront) turned to rack & ruin as they moved in. They would urinate and defecate inside lifts, in passages and the parking garages, vandalise & damage doors and railings or steal anything that could be stolen. If it was bolted down or too heavy to carry, they would break it, or spray graffiti on it. Floor boards, cupboards and ceilings are ripped up, toilets and wash basins are smashed, even pipes and taps are yanked from the walls. SABC management would then pay to have the damage repaired after which they would destroy it all over again, and so the cycle endlessly continues.
As the classic saying goes, “some time something has to give” and now they are finally bankrupt, begging the central regime to bail them out to the tune of -wait for it – TWO BILLION rand. And bail them out, they will – after all, the SABC is the de facto and de jure mouthpiece and propaganda factory for the equally corrupt and inept cabal who themselves cannot even run a bath, let alone a country.
That corruption exists in many governments is annoyingly common, that the politicao’s are on average under trained is a given. When are South Africans going to get that we need an independent civil service for whom service is a duty and something to be proud of. The the regime can change and governments can move from left to right back to front but stability will be kept