COMMUNICATIONS Minister Siphiwe Nyanda yesterday bowed to public pressure and extended the deadline for public comment on the controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill to January 15, but media watchdog Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) called the extension “cosmetic”.
MMA director William Bird, who launched a campaign on Wednesday to lobby the Department of Communications for more time, said the ministry had to know that very little would be done over Christmas, leaving just two weeks more to make submissions .
Nyanda’s announcement followed protest from the MMA, the Save Our SABC Coalition, the South African Screen Federation and trade unions.
The bill has been remarkable in its meteoric progression from a discussion paper in questionnaire format issued in July, to a gazetted bill at the end of October that took everyone, including the Treasury, by surprise.
Broadcasting experts and stakeholders argue the bill will affect all South Africans, from the new 1% personal income tax proposal, to the independence of SABC news. The new bill moves away from the constitution to providing news in line with “developmental state” needs.
“We did not ask for an extension because we are a disorganised bunch of nongovernmental organisations who could not get our submissions together, ” said Bird. “We asked for an extension to have more time to engage with the ministry and department on this legislation, which raises more questions than it answers and which will impact on all South Africans.”
Bird said the concern of all was that the department had not made available the research on which it had based the model proposed in the bill. “We have to make assumptions because the bill is not clear. We are not saying government has not done the work, we are saying, let’s talk.”
He said MMA had calculated the SABC would need R3,4bn next year, just for its public service output, but the contribution from income tax, business and broadcast licence fees would not meet these needs. “SABC would start out with a shortfall.”
Bird said the bill looked at making stations commercial and yet SABC 1, which was created to satisfy public service obligations, was more profitable than the commercial channels. “This does not make sense and we need to understand why, before SABC moves to the new proposed model. We just do not understand, why the rush? Government was willing to allow nine years for the Sexual Offences Bill. I am not saying we need that long but they wanted to get that bill right,” he said.
Nyanda said his department had undertaken to “introduce a draft bill before the end of the year ... this was submitted as part of (its) legislative programme for 2009”. A new funding model was needed because many viewers did not pay licence fees .