afrikaner capital

If you defy Icasa you ‘will learn the hard way’, ANC warns Motsoeneng

Gwede Mantashe has told the SABC that they are playing with fire by defying the orders of a chapter 9 institution, and he should know… look where defying the Public Protector got the ANC and its president.

afrikaner capital

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe knows all too well what happens when you ignore the orders of a chapter 9 institution and warned the ANC that they’re going against Icasa’s ruling at their own peril.

Mantashe, while not directly referring to what happened to Jacob Zuma after he ignored the Public Protector’s Nkandla recommendations – the Public Protector, just like Icasa, is a chapter 9 institution and – had a little laugh when he commented on the SABC’s refusal to adhere to Icasa’s order.

“If you defy the decision of (a Chapter 9) institution, you will learn hard,” Mantashe said.

News24 reports that Mantashe was speaking to journos at Luthuli House when he said the SABC’s COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng — without specifically mentioning his name – wasn’t exactly making things better at the SABC by defying Icasa.

“The SABC remaining defiant, you know this term defiance, (getting) self-satisfaction in defiance,” he said.

“Actually, when you do that you cut your nose to spite your own face, because you come back to realise much later that what you are proud of… displaying your power in defiance, is actually destroying the institution and you as an individual.

“Our view is that we are hoping the people in the SABC will realise that to defy everybody in society doesn’t make them a better public broadcaster.

“It is when they try to listen to what the public view is that makes them a better public broadcaster, and therefore being proud of being described as defiant and being a public broadcaster is a contradiction in terms,” he added.

Mantashe reaffirmed the ANC’s commitment to free speech and opposition to censorship, while Motsoeneng challenged Icasa, saying the SABC will not stop censoring violent protests on television.