SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told Bizcommunity.com the public broadcaster will not comment further on its decision to quit SANEF, adding that it is the matter that needs to be resolved between the two parties, not through the media.
Kganyago explained: “I want to state it clearly that this is a matter between us and SANEF, which we refuse to deal with through the media. That is why we did not issue a press statement… We do not want the media to capitalise on this and keep the matter alive through sensational headlines.”
Some observers say they are surprised that the SABC could go as far as taking sides in the Manto affair, given that it is within the constitutional sphere that the public should know more and question the integrity of those they have elected to represent them in power.
In the five-page letter, which Bizcommunity.com is in possession of a copy, SABC group CEO Dali Mpofu accuses the commercial media of being profit-driven and careless about people's human dignity.
“The commercial media is primarily driven by the fundamentally wrong notion that the right to human dignity, especially in the SA context, is less important than their own right to make money – which is usually and narrowly clothed under the disguise of ‘freedom of expression and the media'.
“Why must the SABC continue to pay money and subscriptions to a body which will collude with this kind of abuse?” Mpofu wrote, referring to SANEF.
In an exclusive interview granted to Bizcommunity.com earlier this year, Mpofu said print media hate the SABC, and in July Kganyago reiterated the same position to this website. So there is bad blood between the public broadcaster and what Mpofu angrily continues to call the ‘dominant conservative right-wing of SANEF'.
In a letter, he also accused The Citizen, Business Day and The Times of fooling and misleading the public over their Saturday's Manto headlines.
SANEF chairperson Jovial Rantao was not available for comment, but sources confirmed that SANEF had responded to the SABC's five page letter with one of its own – but with apparently less pages.
