Vuyo Mvoko | ‘SABC 8’ bolt out of the blue
I was having a hectic, but jolly good week as the new singer in town, Angelo Agrizzi, continued to dish out some sensational stuff about his former employer, Bosasa, at the state capture inquiry.
The huge amount of responsibility eNCA has decided to drop on my shoulders – it’s asked me to lead the channel’s election coverage in what is going to be the most contested poll since 1994 – seemed like a walk in the park when I started thinking about the consequences of Agrizzi’s extraordinary claims for so many people, organisations and institutions.
Yhoo … little did I know that I was going to be next.
Sometime in 2016, working as a contributing editor for SA’s national public broadcaster, a series of crazy decisions were made, one after another within a very short space of time, not only impugning the integrity of what we were putting on air for the consumption of millions of South Africans, but also causing untold damage to both the intelligence and reputation of the hard working professionals whose job it was to inform, entertain and educate viewers and listeners.
At the helm of the SABC at the time was one egomaniac called Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who was doing anything from taking unlawful and irrational decisions about what to broadcast, to firing and demoting staff will-nilly, to say nothing of making the most stupid and inane public statements.
Several of my colleagues had already stood up to his nonsense.
Thandeka Gqubule, Lukhanyo Calata, Krivani Pillay, Busi Ntuli, Foeta Krige, Suna Venter and Jacques Steenkamp had already provoked his ire, and that of the rest of his executive and the board.
I approached a couple of newspaper editors, explained to them the importance of the stance these colleagues had taken for the SABC and the nation, and why my little contribution deserved consideration.
The next day readers of The Star in Johannesburg, the Pretoria News, the Cape Argus in Cape Town and Durban’s Natal Mercury all woke up to font page leads detailing the nasty goings-on at the SABC.
Needless to say, when I arrived at work later that day, I was told to go home and not come back until Motsoeneng and his cohort had taken a decision about how to punish me.
At the stroke of a pen, I had become the eighth member of a notorious gang that would later be dubbed “the SABC 8”.
Suspended, we approached everyone we could – from lawyers to legislators to leaders of civil society groups and organisations – to enlist their support for a multi-pronged effort to free the SABC from the grip of dictatorship and irrelevance.
A parliamentary inquiry followed, leading to the ultimate firing of Motsoeneng and the irresponsible board that was complicit in his destruction.
We would receive the Institute of Internal Auditors’ “Guardian of Governance” award, as well as the SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) Nat Nakassa Award for “fearless and courageous” journalism.
Sanef would also mobilise some crowd funding to help us and our families get by.
On Tuesday evening I was on air, broadcasting highlights of Agrizzi’s explosive testimony, when two calls came through.
One was from a newspaper editor and the other from a number I didn’t recognise.
I responded with “on air, pse text”, to which the person I didn’t know responded: “Mr Mvoko this is … just a quick one, sir, I’m working on a breaking news story that Bosasa donated a R100,000.00 towards the cause to support the SABC 8 journalists in 2016…
“Are you aware that some of the money that was donated to the cause and given to the eight journalists including yourself was from Bosasa?”
I read, reread and seriously pondered the message.
It smacked of a desire to “even” things out.
Sanef, which administered the fund, is adamant not a cent came from Bosasa.
The newspaper, meanwhile, was relying on an e-mail that only talks about “a brilliant idea” of donating to the crowdfunding effort, but with no evidence pointing to whether this was followed through.
It seemed that because the newspaper had been rapped over the knuckles by judge Zondo for reporting so extensively and prominently on very sensational allegations against such people as environmental affairs minister Nomvula Mokonyane – before the testimony was ventilated at the commission – “consistency” meant the same treatment had to be metered out to the journalists alleged to have received a R100,000 donation from Bosasa.
I was incensed at being made a sacrificial lamb.
I was seething with anger. I felt betrayed – by my craft, a fellow journalist and the Sunday Times, a newspaper I regard to be one of the last enduring journalism institutions.
But with so much to do over the next few months, focusing on doing some good journalism to ensure that our country never again sinks into the deep hole of the past few years especially, maybe the best reaction is to focus on what once drove me and my colleagues to sacrifice our salaries and jobs.
This was so we could right the wrongs that were being metered by a few who were abusing their privileged status at the time.
That year without a salary – between 2016 and 2017 – did hurt, but was a sacrifice worth it.
And I couldn’t have put it more eloquently than Krige – yes, him of SABC 8 fame – who said in this message he sent out to the rest of us on Wednesday: “If it turns out to be true that Bosasa thought an independent and impartial newsroom for the SABC would be beneficial for their cause of corruption, and would lead to the exposure of the rot inside the SABC, including the downfall of Hlaudi Motsoeneng, it would have been the only positive contribution they made in their long history of corruption”.
At least we didn’t take Bosasa money so it could unlawfully get and keep multibillion rand tenders, but we “took” it to fight, and win, over a devil that threatened our democracy and nearly destroyed our hard won freedoms.
So, we have paid back the money!
And that’s if – and a big “if” – Bosasa did indeed ever give us the money.
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