DA prompts Icasa to rule on TV ad row

VOTERS should be frightened of the SABC's refusal to air DA election campaign advertisements as this formed part of the "Zanufication" of South Africa.

This is the assertion of DA leader and Western Cape premier Helen Zille, who also attacked the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) for breaking its own rules in dragging its feet on ruling in the matter, to the advantage of the ANC.

Icasa's rules say it has to rule on complaints about election broadcasts 48 hours after they are filed. They received a complaint from the DA on Saturday, but asked the party for a postponement to deliver a ruling on the matter tomorrow.

Icasa claimed it might not be possible for it to form a quorum to decide on the matter before the end of business tomorrow.

Failure to deliver a ruling on the matter by tomorrow would mean that the DA election advertisement would continue not to be broadcast on SABC radio and television during the long Easter weekend as the ban imposed by the public broadcaster would continue.

However, after the DA said it would approach the South Gauteng High Court and ask it to compel Icasa to follow its own rules, the communications regulator had a sudden change of heart. It said a hearing on the matter would take place at 6pm last night in Sandton, forcing Zille to catch a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

Zille said the saga showed the ANC government, under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma, was undermining the institutions which should be independent regulators, threatening to place the country on a similar course to the one embarked upon by the ruling Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe.

"If people are not frightened, they are not following the news," Zille told the parliamentary media corps in Cape Town yesterday.

"The fight is not between the SABC and the DA. It is between the SABC and all South Africans who believe in freedom of speech, information and political contestation.

"This is a delaying mechanism on behalf of the ANC. It is an example of the creeping Zanufication of South Africa. In Zimbabwe it happened little by little.

"If people cannot see the creeping Zanufication of South Africa under President Jacob Zuma's ANC, they need to wake up before it is too late." Zille said. - Jan-Jan Joubert