CHRIS ROPER: Of spooks, censorship and the SABC
The vetting of the SABC head of news by the State Security Agency, two years after his appointment and just ahead of an election, should be called what it is: an attempt at intimidation
Are we really supposed to believe it’s a coincidence that the State Security Agency (SSA) has decided to do an official vetting of Moshoeshoe Monare, the head of news at the SABC, just weeks before the national elections? And this after he has been in the job for two years already?
This is the same SSA, let me remind you, that blithely paid a media house to publish positive news about the government, or propaganda as it’s more commonly known. We learnt this at the commission of inquiry into state capture, or Zondo commission to you and me, where Sydney Mufamadi revealed that about R20m was paid by the intelligence agency to the African News Agency (ANA) to, as The Witness put it, “influence the national news narrative, and to counter the bad publicity around former president Jacob Zuma’s government”. ..
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