War has erupted between President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office and the SABC over the alleged targeting of the national broadcaster’s executive through a security vetting process by the State Security Agency (SSA).
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has denied that executives of the SABC, including CEO Nomsa Chabeli and head of news, Moshoeshoe Monare, who are being vetted by the SSA, are being targeted ahead of the general election.
Monare was requested by the SSA on April 18 to be vetted again and undergo a top security test, which will include taking a polygraph test. The call occurred after Ramaphosa was heard in a leaked meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting in April bemoaning alleged negative media reports regarding the governing party ahead of the May 29 polls.
The phone call from the SSA occurred a week after the ANC NEC meeting and two years after Monare was appointed into his position at the national broadcaster.
The reports have raised fears that media freedom in the country could be stifled ahead of the elections. Media lobby groups including the SA National Editors’ Forum, Campaign for Free Expression and Support Public Broadcasting Coalition have condemned the move by the SSA saying the move undermines press freedom.
“The SABC made the request to the SSA to conduct a vetting process on Monare, as per the established practise with all SABC executives. Monare’s predecessor went through a similar vetting process without any hitches. It is therefore not true that Monare is being targeted ahead of the elections,” Magwenya told a media briefing on Monday.
“Upon his appointment, Monare consented to the vetting process, completed the form that was furnished to him, and went further to submit some but not all of the required information.”
“The process was then stalled when Monare did not want to submit himself to a polygraph test, which is part of the vetting process. Consequently, the vetting of Monare was never completed.”
Magwenya said that Ramaphosa would never allow journalists or the media to be intimidated because it would go against the provisions of the constitution.
“President Ramaphosa or any part of his administration will never sanction acts of intimidation or harassment of journalists, because such behaviour will stand contrary to sacrosanct adherence to the bill of rights that are enshrined in our country’s constitution,” he said.
In an interview with the SABC shortly after the presidency’s media briefing, Monare questioned why he was requested to undergo a polygraph test by the SSA two years after his appointment while none of the other SABC executives were required to do the same.
“A month before elections you want to subject the editor-in-chief to a polygraph test... I don’t want to make assumptions based on conspiracies but I must say it is strange,” he told the broadcaster.
“I submitted myself to the vetting process in 2022. I did not object to the process. The process did not include a polygraph test ... for two years no-one came back to say to me that my forms are incomplete.”
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