Kudos to the SABC for making its Grievance Report public

The SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition commends the SABC for agreeing to publish
its Grievance Report by a Special Committee tasked to investigate allegations made by the
former Group Executive: News and Current Affairs, Phathiswa Magopeni, against the SABC
Board Chairperson, Bongumusa Makhathini. The Special Committee acquitted Mr
Makhathini of allegations of editorial interference.

This Report was the subject of an SABC statement on 8 April 2022. The Report was
published internally and made available to the SABC Board.

The SOS Coalition requested that the SABC Board make the Report available to the public
for the following reasons:

• The sacking of the former News GE was a matter of public interest. This is especially
true when the SABC Board Chairperson, as the most senior representative of an
accountable public broadcaster, faced allegations of editorial interference made by
the sacked Ms Magopeni.

• The Report records the outcome of an investigation of an alleged breach by the
Chairperson of the editorial policies of the SABC. This is a very serious allegation
given that the SABC must be accountable to the public, and free of any political,
commercial or other vested interference.

The SOS Coalition applauds the SABC for making the Report available to the public and
supports its decision to redact private and confidential information therein, in line with the
provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act. The SABC acknowledged SOS’s
input in its decision to publish the Report in a separate statement on 23 June 2022.

SOS will continue to encourage transparency and accountability at the SABC, and frank and
constructive engagement with all its stakeholders. The public sits at the heart of our ongoing demand for an accountable public broadcaster that follows its mandate to provide information, education and entertainment for all who live in South Africa.