SABC ‘poisoning’ minds of millions of South Africans − Mpofu

The lawyer for uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, advocate Dali Mpofu, told the Gauteng High Court, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is “poisoning” the minds of millions of South Africans by using the term government of national unity (GNU).

The SABC and former president Jacob Zuma’s party faced off in the Gauteng High Court  in Johannesburg on Thursday over the use of the term GNU.

Judgment in the matter has been reserved.

“Poisoning minds”

The public broadcaster has asked the court to dismiss the MK party’s urgent application regarding the use of the term GNU, calling it an abuse of process.

Mpofu argued that if the SABC failed in its endeavours to be accurate, independent, and impartial, then it was in violation of the rights of citizens.

He said the SABC failed to be accurate, impartial, and independent when reporting about the GNU.

“We are dealing here with the most egregious and serious rights in the hands of the citizenry. We are talking about millions of people who, according to the allegations in the papers, are being poisoned on an hourly and ongoing basis,” said Mpofu.

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Zille and GNU

Mpofu told Judge Seena Yacoob about the comments made by DA federal chair Helen Zille, who disputed the use of the term GNU for what she believes is a coalition.

Mpofu said Zille, “who was probably the first signatory to the statement of intent”, states the truth that the ANC and the DA were in a coalition.

“This is what Miss Helen Zille says, quote: ‘President Cyril Ramaphosa came up with this notion of a government of national unity, which he thought would be a better way of selling the concept of a coalition to his own party.’

“And she says, ‘now this is of course, not a government of national unity because a government of national unity brings all the parties together which should have to include the EFF and MK party which it did not, but it still gave the president the fig leaf he needed to bring in all sorts of smaller parties to say, I’m not in a coalition with the DA’,” Mpofu argued.

He said Zille then revealed a “bombshell.”

“She says, ‘now the truth is, what we are actually in is a coalition, because a coalition means that if a party withdraws from the coalition, the government fails’.”

GNU political term

SABC’s advocate Terry Motau told the court GNU is a political term and politicians were likely to make different utterances on different days.

“Is it inaccurate for the SABC to report that the government is referring to itself as the government of national unity? And to go a step further and say this is a contested issue. The applicants refer to an interview that Miss Zille gave and there are two other interviews that Miss Zille gave where she says the opposite.

“She says, ‘we are in a government of national unity’. But my lady, the point is the following, politicians, for whatever reason, on a day that they are happy with one another, they say we are in a government of national unity and something happens on the next day somebody goes and pronounces that we are not,” Motau argued.

Balanced reporting

Motau said it is an irrelevant consideration for purposes of compliance with the legislative injunctions.

“The only requirement would be that even where there is a contradiction by a member of a political party, the SABC is dutybound in complying with the accuracy injunction, would have to report the fact that, on this day, Miss Zille said, we are in a government of national unity on this day, she said, we are not and three weeks down the line, she said, we are.

“That is with respect what is required for purposes of meeting the threshold of reporting fairly, reporting in a balanced way, reporting accurately, without the SABC representing that it adopts, for purposes of determining correctness of the usage of the term, one term or the other,” Motau argued.  

Motau argued there is no such statutory requirement and that the Constitution imposes no such obligation on the SABC.

He said the case should not be considered on an urgent basis.

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