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Daily Maverick
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
SABC Bill withdrawal crisis and South Africa's public broadcasting future
The six months of silence since Communications Minister Solly Malatsi withdrew the SABC Bill is unacceptable. The Speaker must urgently gazette that withdrawal, in line with the rules of the National Assembly. Silence is killing the SABC. For years, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has weathered waves of political noise, controversy, and intense public scrutiny — the kind of attention that once threatened its survival. But today, it is not the noise, but the silence that endangers its future. On 10 November 2024, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi withdrew the SABC Bill in terms of Rule 334 of the National Assembly Rules, following sustained pressure from civil society organisations, including the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS), and various broadcasters. In line with Rule 277(3), the Speaker of the National Assembly was required to formally gazette this withdrawal. Six months later, this has yet to happen. Instead, the process has evolved into political infighting. On 21 December 2024, the Parliamentary committee on communications and digital technologies issued a statement rejecting outright Minister Malatsi's decision, describing the withdrawal as both unilateral and unconstitutional. Deputy communications minister (also former minister), Mondli Gungubele vented on X, opposing the withdrawal, while civil society organisations, including SOS, supported the withdrawal of the flawed SABC Bill. On 8 February 2025, News24 reported that Deputy President Paul Mashatile had convened a meeting with the Speaker and Minister Malatsi to understand the reasons behind the withdrawal. However, by 2 March, TimesLIVE reported that the deputy president, in his role as leader of Government Business, was on the receiving end of a backlash from ANC ministers after he presented and supported Malatsi's rationale for withdrawing the Bill. To date, the Speaker has not gazetted this withdrawal, the Cabinet and the parliamentary committee have gone quiet, and the public has been left in the dark. This silence goes beyond mere procedural oversight – it is symptomatic of a severe lack of political will to protect and reform the public broadcaster. The SABC Bill In October 2023, former Minister Gungubele introduced the SABC Bill in Parliament. The Bill seeks to repeal the outdated Broadcasting Act 4 of 1999 and should ideally pave the way for the SABC to address its persistent financial woes, at which it dismally fails. Civil society organisations, including SOS, raised myriad concerns about the Bill's implications on media freedom and sustainability, warning it would erode the SABC's editorial independence, entrench political interference and delay much-needed financial reform. The SOS Coalition, in a joint submission with Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF), highlighted the following concerning flaws: Policy vacuum: The Bill is being introduced in the absence of pre-requisite policy, the Audio and Audio-Visual Media Services, and online content safety; Policy U-turn: It proposes the establishment of a commercial board when it is clearly stated in the first iteration of the Audio and Audio-Visual policy that 'the idea of the commercial division cross-subsidising the public division has been a failure from inception'; Retrogressive: The Bill proposes that the group chief executive officer, a business-oriented executive who lacks journalistic experience, be the editor-in-chief, while overlooking the head of news, who has the appropriate journalistic background and is involved in daily editorial matters; No funding model: The Bill promises that the minister will develop a funding model framework, but only in three years, and not a funding model, while the SABC's financial challenges worsen; and Ministerial powers: The minister is granted powers that are contrary to prominent court judgments that specifically require protection of the independence of the public broadcaster from ministerial interference. One case in particular is the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition and Others v South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC Limited and Others; SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition and Others v South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC Limited and Others (81056/14) [2017] ZA. In the Bill, the minister has powers to interfere with processes at the SABC and appoint board members of the commercial board, the interim board, and extend the board's term after the end of the second term by six months or until a new board is appointed. These concerns justify the withdrawal by Minister Malatsi, who agrees that the Bill is 'totally flawed'. The withdrawal of the Bill was within Minister Malatsi's purview, and he followed due process. The Cabinet has no formal role in this process and its subsequent involvement has caused further delays. Following the meeting between the deputy president, the Speaker, and the minister, and in particular the endorsement of Minister Malatsi's withdrawal by the deputy president, it remains unclear why Cabinet has not yet directed the Speaker to gazette the Bill. The sooner the withdrawal is formally gazetted, the sooner the department can begin the necessary consultations and revisions to address the flaws in the Bill. The continued silence is unacceptable. The Speaker must urgently gazette the Bill's withdrawal, in line with the rules of the National Assembly. Similarly, Cabinet and political parties must demonstrate the political will to support meaningful reform of the SABC rather than delay this reform through political infighting. The public broadcaster is a cornerstone of our democracy and provides millions of South Africans with critical information to make informed decisions about their lives – it needs to be safeguarded and supported to fulfil its public mandate. DM
Daily Maverick
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
SAPS faces backlash over omission of gender-based violence data in latest crime statistics
The South African Police Service is under fire for omitting key data on violence against women and children in its latest crime statistics, with critics calling it a betrayal of South Africa's promise to fight gender-based violence. The South African Police Service (SAPS) is facing criticism from Parliament, opposition parties, and civil society after failing to include vital data on crimes against women and children in its most recent national crime statistics report. The missing data has sparked concerns about transparency, accountability, and the state's commitment to addressing gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), one of the most pressing crises facing the country. The controversy centres on the SAPS' fourth quarter crime statistics for the 2024/25 financial year. During a Portfolio Committee on Police meeting held on Wednesday, 11 June 2025, Members of Parliament raised questions about the absence of disaggregated figures on murder, attempted murder, and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) targeting women and children. In response to the inquiry, SAPS officials claimed that while the summary report presented to Parliament on 28 May 2025 did not contain the relevant information, the full version — released to the public on the SAPS' website on 23 May — did include the disaggregated data. However, this claim was found to be false. 'This assertion is factually incorrect. A review of both the summarised and full versions of the fourth quarter crime statistics confirms that disaggregated data on crimes against women and children is not included. 'The committee has always been of the view that the credibility of statistics is dependent on the tabling of all crime statistics in full, which will drive the police response, especially in the context of the SAPS adopting a data-driven approach to policing,' read the statement from the Portfolio Committee on Police. Accountability demanded from SAPS leadership The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Ian Cameron, expressed 'serious concern' over the matter, stating that the credibility of crime statistics depended on their completeness and accuracy — especially given the SAPS' stated commitment to a data-driven approach to policing. 'The absence of credible and complete data significantly undermines efforts to assess the scope of violence against women and children and to develop effective, targeted interventions,' said Cameron. To address the issue, he has written to the minister of police and the national commissioner, requesting a written report by Friday, 20 June 2025. The report must explain both the omission of data and the inaccurate statements made to Parliament during the 11 June meeting. Cameron warned that failure to provide a satisfactory response could lead to formal parliamentary action. 'Should a satisfactory response not be received, the committee will consider invoking its powers under the National Assembly Rules and the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, 2004, to summon the relevant officials to appear before the committee and give evidence under oath or affirmation,' he said. DA calls omission a 'deliberate misrepresentation' The Democratic Alliance (DA) has labelled the SAPS' conduct a 'deliberate misrepresentation' of facts. The party has announced its intention to formally ask that the minister of police urgently appear before the committee to account for what it describes as a serious breach of trust. 'This is not a technical error. It is a deliberate misrepresentation that demands accountability. Parliament cannot exercise effective oversight if it is being fed misinformation,' said Lisa Schickerling, the DA deputy spokesperson on police, in a statement. According to the DA, this is not the first instance of SAPS leadership providing incorrect information regarding the crime statistics. During the 11 June committee meeting, Deputy National Commissioner Tabello Mosikili stated that the disaggregated data was included in the crime report, an assertion later echoed by National Commissioner Fannie Masemola in a separate meeting on 20 June. Masemola reportedly contradicted himself during the session, before repeating the same falsehood. 'The fact remains: SAPS failed to report any data specifically relating to women and children in its latest crime stats,' said Schickerling. Schickerling also pointed to the inconsistency between the SAPS' public statements about GBV being a national priority and its failure to transparently report key statistics. 'If the SAPS claims that GBV is a national priority, then its failure to report key data transparently tells a different story. You cannot fight what you refuse to measure. Women and children in South Africa deserve more than platitudes. They deserve facts, integrity, and a police service that takes their safety seriously,' she said. Public trust 'undermined by omission' The outcry has not been limited to political circles. Ilitha Labantu, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting survivors of violence and promoting justice for women and children, also issued a strong statement condemning the data omission. 'The absence of disaggregated data on murder, attempted murder, and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm significantly weakens the national response to gender-based violence and femicide,' the organisation said. 'This is not a matter of oversight. It reflects a deeper institutional failure to respond with transparency and urgency to one of the most pressing human rights issues facing our country.' Ilitha Labantu emphasised the human cost of the omission. Between January and March 2025 alone, 966 women and 314 children were murdered in South Africa, figures the organisation says must not be hidden or forgotten. 'These are not just numbers. They are lives lost in a context of systemic violence, and to exclude this information from official reporting is to erase the experiences of victims and survivors,' the statement read. The organisation called for an immediate correction of the crime statistics report and urged Parliament to ensure that future reports include a full, transparent, and accurate breakdown of crimes against women and children. 'Reliable, disaggregated data is fundamental to crafting evidence-based interventions, allocating resources, and holding institutions accountable. Without it, public trust erodes, policy responses become symbolic, and the violence continues unchecked,' said the organisation. 'The fight for justice begins with truth,' Ilitha Labantu concluded. 'We cannot address this crisis in silence or in darkness. The rights, dignity, and safety of women and children must not be erased in the process.' In response to questions from Daily Maverick, national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the SAPS routinely published quarterly and annual crime statistics, including figures related to crimes against women and children, specifically murder, attempted murder, and assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm (GBH). These figures are based on data from case dockets and the Crime Administration System (CAS), and rely on the accurate recording of victims' age and sex, as well as correct linkage between victims and charges. Before the release of the fourth quarter and preliminary annual statistics for the 2024/25 financial year, the SAPS' Component Crime Registrar conducted a review of the data. According to Mathe, the review uncovered significant anomalies in the subset relating to women and children. 'Discrepancies were identified between the sum of quarterly data and the annual totals, which could not be reconciled. Duplication of crime counts was observed, resulting in inflated figures where the subset (women and children) exceeded the total population of victims. Data integrity issues were traced to inconsistencies in victim-linking and demographic recording,' she said. As a result of these issues, the SAPS leadership made the decision to halt the release of the disaggregated statistics and remove previously published figures from the SAPS website 'The national commissioner has directed the relevant stakeholders to urgently investigate and resolve the identified data challenges. This process is currently under way, and the statistics on crimes against women and children will be reinstated once the data has been corrected and validated. The revised statistics will be accompanied by a detailed explanation of the nature and implications of the revisions,' she said. DM
