IFP accuses SABC of blatant ANC bias

CAPE TOWN -- Inkatha Freedom Party chairman Lionel Mtshali has demanded an immediate meeting with SABC chief executive Hewu Mbatha to discuss what he called "blatant bias" in the broadcaster's election coverage.

"We have arrived at the stage where the SABC's bias threatens the very freedom of our democratic process," Mtshali said in a statement yesterday. "The SABC has become the voice of the African National Congress."

Mtshali complained that SABC TV's Zulu news on Saturday failed to report a "very successful" rally held by IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi in Phuthaditjhaba.

This was incomprehensible by any objective standard of news judgement.

It could only be explained either as part of a deliberate policy to restrict the coverage of Buthelezi among Zulu speakers for political ends, or as "breathtaking" incompetence in the SABC.

He said the IFP had hoped that after 1994 the SABC could move on from the apartheid era -- when it was a state broadcaster catering to the whims of the ruling party -- and become a public broadcaster catering to the needs of all South Africans.

This hope was being betrayed daily by the blatant bias of the corporation's election coverage.

SABC spokeswoman Marj Murray said the corporation expected this kind of complaint in the run-up to the polls. "It's really the norm," she said.

The issue, however, was what was newsworthy, and opinions on this would differ from party to party.

In addition, any party that was in the government of the day, as the ANC was now, would get more coverage.

However, the SABC had indicated its willingness to meet political parties to discuss these issues.

Pan Africanist Congress president Stanley Mogoba said yesterday his party had lodged a complaint three months ago about the "negative and unhelpful" coverage it was getting from the SABC.

Things had not improved much, and he hoped to raise the issue at a meeting with SABC news chief executive Enoch Sithole.

The meeting, initiated by the SABC, was to have taken place yesterday, but was postponed. -- Sapa