‘No Direct Line’ Between Luthuli House & Auckland Park, But Muthambi Interfered – SABC Editorial Probe

Riyaz Patel

Former communications minister Faith Muthambi and ex-SABC board chairperson Ellen Tshabalala interfered in decision making in the public broadcaster’s newsrooms, an inquiry into editorial interference at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has found.

The probe was headed by executive director of the Press Council Joe Thloloe.

The report states that editorial executives took instructions from “people with no authority in the newsroom.”

“The evidence shows that from the year 2012 up until the year 2017, SABC executives took instructions from people with no authority in the newsroom, for example, members of the SABC board (Ellen Tshabalala) and the minister for communication (Faith Muthambi),” Thloloe said.

Thloloe said the SABC suffered from “capricious use of authority and power to terrorise staff to deflect the corporation from its mandate and its editorial policies.”

And although the inquiry found no “direct line” between the newsroom and the African National Congress (ANC) headquarters at Luthuli House, the