NATIONAL NARRATIVE: The SABC is dying. We’ll miss it more than we know when it’s gone.

Amid all the debates about our news media and the strength of our democracy, one vital institution is being almost ignored. The SABC once had the power to both divide us and to bring us together. A stronger, better SABC would do more to strengthen our democracy than almost any other intervention.

(Before you read any further: the author works for two direct competitors to the SABC.)

A trip back to the SABC last week (where I used to present SAfm’s breakfast show at the time, SAfm Sunrise) brought home how dire the situation at the broadcaster is.

The lifts in Radio Park are not trusted, to the point where SAfm has moved from its normal studios on the sixth floor to a studio in the basement.

While the studio is perfectly serviceable, it appears the air conditioning is not. Even during my time working there, the air conditioning was incredibly variable in the building, leading to presenters sending each other “weather reports” so they could be dressed appropriately.

Duct tape and goodwill

The corporation appears to be held together with duct tape and the goodwill and passion of its remaining employees. 

Audiences have suffered, both through a lack of quality and through simply departing for other forms of news and entertainment.

It is no coincidence that during this period in which the SABC’s audiences have declined, so our politics has fractured.

As recently as April 2020, during the lockdown, more than eleven million people tuned in to watch one single episode of Uzalo. 

Now, similar broadcasts appear to get only around one-and-a-half million viewers.

In the meantime, social media has flourished, with TikTok, X and others, including podcasts, now garnering huge audiences.

During the same period, trust in the state has dramatically declined.

Now, credible surveys show consistently that fewer than half of South Africans believe we should remain a democracy and would prefer to see a dictator or military government instead.

While there are many reasons for this, including most importantly, the utter collapse of so many government services, the decline of the SABC must be a factor.

Starting point for debate

A strong public broadcaster helps a nation to at least agree on the facts. And that provides the starting point for constructive debate.

Social media, where everyone is watching and absorbing something different to everyone else, makes it impossible for us to agree on the facts. And means debates are not constructive, but often just the result of what we see in echo-chambers.

It is of course correct that for a public broadcaster to survive it must provide compelling content.

It is not that we must watch the SABC, it is that the SABC should produce content that we want to watch. And particularly in the area of news and current affairs.

The SABC news channel should be the most-watched channel in the country. Not the most-watched news channel. The most-watched channel.

(Conflict alert: I also work for Newzroom Afrika, a direct competitor to the SABC news channel.)

This would be not only because of the incredibly compelling nature of the South African story, but also because of the way it is told. 

The reason the SABC is in this position is not because of the people who work there, or just because of our deep and more recent history.

It is largely because, even after the departure of the fraud and criminal Hlaudi Motsoneng (who once told us that “I perform miracles wherever I go”) Parliament has simply not resolved its major problem.

Funding model ‘stain’

There has been no workable and sustainable funding model advanced to support the SABC.

This, and the state of the corporation, should be a stain on the conscience of every single member of Parliament. 

Whether it is the Communications Minister Solly Malatsi, or the Deputy Minister Mondli Gungubele, the President or any other MP.

Instead of any kind of constructive debate, the parties in the national coalition, and in the opposition, have focused on narrow point scoring and their own ideology.

And while it is true that there are many different crises for MPs to focus on, the longer they ignore the crisis at the SABC the harder it will be to agree on the solutions for so many of the other crises.

This is because our knowledge of these crises is coming from so many different sources, rather than informed and neutral reporting from the SABC.

As a result each crisis becomes more and politicised and the various parties in Parliament become more entrenched in their different views, as they believe they are responding to the needs of their differing constituencies.

Unfortunately for all of those who are currently in Parliament, their inability to deal with the crisis at the SABC will eventually affect them in a profoundly negative way.

Those in Parliament now are, almost by definition, part of the establishment. They represent people who voted in our current system and thus are beneficiaries of it.

Social media, fractured politics

The decline of the SABC strengthens anti-establishment voices, who use social media to fracture our politics further and thus weaken democracy.

The moment will soon come when those in Parliament are unable to correct lies told about them or to have any influence at all over an incredibly diffuse national narrative.

Rather, there will be no national narrative at all. Just a hodgepodge of voices struggling for different audiences.

The SABC requires urgent intervention. A constructive intervention, that includes more money, more resources and a long-term strategy to make it sustainable.

The SABC is dying.

We will miss it more than we can possibly understand when its influence is gone completely. DM