South Africans would be within their rights to be outraged by the political stunt pulled by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the public broadcaster.
On Sunday, the presidency released a media advisory, alerting the public that Ramaphosa would address the nation — via the SABC — at 6pm. No subject matter was mentioned.
At the appointed time it emerged that the address was a combination of the record of his first term in office and a review of the past 30 years of the ANC government. Coming just two days before the general election, it was clear an hour after the address that this was an ANC ploy to provide its leader with an extra platform to give himself and his party a glowing review of their performance.
Few people were fooled by the gimmick. Not only did it backfire on the presidency, but it also embarrassed the SABC. The public broadcaster, which has courted controversy in the run-up to Wednesday’s election, ought to have interrogated the presidency before screening the address.
The president and his ministers have had plenty of platforms to talk about the ANC’s record in government. The decent thing would be for the presidency to apologise for abusing the broadcaster. Unfortunately, this will not happen.
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