Photo: ANA (African News Agency)
The SABC has apologised profusely for the embarrassment caused to President Cyril Ramaphosa after it played the wrong version of his address to the nation.
Photo: ANA (African News Agency)
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has promised President Cyril Ramaphosa that action will be taken after they played the wrong version of his address to the nation on Thursday.
Ramaphosa was a man being pulled in many directions this week, with obligations at the World Economic Forum on Africa being disrupted by the xenophobic violence in Gauteng and the ongoing protests against gender-based violence.
The President appeared personally before the protestors at Parliament earlier in the day and promised a full address on gender violence in the country to be broadcast on the SABC within an hour.
In his address Ramaphosa officially declared the situation a state of emergency on gender-based violence in South Africa, which will somewhat increase Parliament’s ability to act more decisively on matters to do with gender violence.
He also promised more women’s shelters would be built, to reopen all unsolved cases of gender violence sitting with the police, and laws would be changed to better protect women.
“We are going to modernise and overhaul the register of gender-based violence. The register will be taken to Parliament for debate to make the names of those convicted public. I will also urge Parliament to amend legislation so that the National Register of Sexual Offenders is made public, too.”
Cyril Ramaphosa
However, the address lost some of its luster very early on when Ramaphosa appeared to stumble over a part of his speech before asking to start again because he had made a mistake.
The mishap caused a bit of surprise as some people thought the address was to be a live speech. However, Ramaphosa was giving an address to the World Economic Forum on Africa at the same time so, clearly, that would have been impossible.
The SABC has strongly apologised to Ramaphosa for the mistake and promised action will be taken following a review of what happened.
Many South Africans were left disappointed the President chose to do a pre-recorded message on the issue rather than ‘talking from the heart’, including Democratic Alliance media officer Azola Mboniswa.
[EXPOSED] President Cyril Ramaphosa makes a mistake during his “live” recorded address to the nation as he speaks on the gender based violence crisis and xenophobia.
— Azola Mboniswa (@AzolaMboniswa) September 5, 2019
This is embarrassing and an epic fail.
This is a MUST WATCH#NoToWomenAbuse #XenophobiaSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/BE0uCFy0lU