Special Hearings — Media Hearings — 1997-09-15

BHEKI KHATHIDE: From the very outset when we were trained what was very evident was the manner in which facilities were separated based on the discretion of the manager in that department whose duty it was to prepare any new employee to be skilful in making television programmes.   The discrepancy was in a number of aspects.  There were different classes for different races.  There was one class for - like I trained as a producer, one class for black producers and then another for white producers.    And the other discrepancy was in the form of equipment used.  Needless to say of course and in line with the apartheid policy processes blacks were given older machines to work with, under-exposed films as examples of what one would do, but at that point one would not know if this was under-exposed but as one learned and was able to make the differences between the two I could tell that the examples I was given were preparing me to be an inferior type of a producer compared to my white counterpart.  The other discrepancies were in the form of facilities and amenities.  There were different toilets for blacks as well as there were different ones for whites.  The same went with regard to canteens.  The same went with the accessibility of other facilities and recreation.  For instance you all know that there is a SABC NSO, National Symphony Orchestra, no black had access to it, only whites had.  Even the choral part of it which is referred to as the SABC choir you wouldn't dare want to be a member of that choir if you were black.  As a producer I had to travel all over the country making programmes.  This pertained to when I was a second phase journalist, that is doing in-depth news.  You would be booked some accommodation and all the time the types of hotel you were booked in would be inferior to those that whites would be booked in.  Back here, back home in SABC, facilities would be booked, of course that is post-production facilities like editing and as a black you would be given unholy hours if you understand what we mean. Unholy hours would be those hours ranging from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock in the morning.    Consistent with this separate type of situation was the sport department which was divided into three duplicated types of programme making.  You would have sport in TV1, sport in TV2 and sport in TV3, duplicating of facilities, duplicating of manpower, duplicating of time and money.  With regard to that highlight I mentioned earlier on, that is Tjikelele, early 1984 here in South Africa came a certain Dr Professor Zeitel(?) who is a world-acclaimed television book writer.  When in the country he made it clear that TV2 Tjikelele, in spite of it being quite new in the field, led by or handled by blacks, were "cracking it".  In our mind it appeared that the powers that be were weary of that kind of positive comment of the programme that was black led because immediately after this comment there was transferred a white producer from TV1 to overseeing what was done by this programme that was said to be "cracking it".  We regarded SABC, till of course recently, as what one would call an Afrikaner homeland.  You have to have a correct surname to move up the ladder in terms of promotion as well as in terms of filling new posts as an outsider.  If you are a black you would not even hope to be a lowest level manager save for the duplication of course of that first level manager which was called then editorial producer which I once was.  That was the highest one as a black would go up the ladder here at SABC.  Afrikaner homeland in that while it is true that at the manager level there were English speakers but their mobility upward was also limited to that level. From a level beyond that up to the director general, as it was called then, and they now call it Group Chief Executive, you would see only, and only Afrikaans-related surnames.  We also had to live with correspondence which was mainly in Afrikaans.  If you were unfortunate not to have a command in that kind of a language you were doomed.  There was a flood of this Afrikaans correspondence in spite of SABC having claimed bilingualism which when you were interviewed it would be made clear that SABC was bilingual, meaning you had to be proficient in both English and Afrikaans.  There was this atrocious kind of regulations we lived through.  My colleagues who are here today I believe as I am alluding to it, are beginning to think that I am referring to, of course I do, Section 14. Under that section you would be fired unceremoniously without being given a reason so long as the manager suspects that your ideological convictions were not in line with the government of the day.  SABC did not mince words.  SABC made it very plain, contrary to what newspapers are doing in an attempt to duck and dive, SABC made it very plain in written form that they live to support the government of the day.  If, therefore, you would reflect anything on the screen that does not lend itself to this type of an ideal you would be in for it.  Many producers lived under very unbearable situations.  Up till the advent of unionism inside SABC, thanks to the Wiehahn Commission report, when that did happen one realised a flood of people rushing into Mwasa as a trade union for affiliation.  This also wasn't a smooth sailing route in that SABC in a number of levels resisted it in favour of the - remember Mwasa was a white led labour movement, in favour of the white led staff association.  With regard to the distortion of facts one very good example that many producers liked to joke about even today, when you would go and make even a magazine programme and in the background thereof was there an emblem written Anchor Yeast because that starts with ANC that would be problematic enough for it not to see the screen.  Budgeting was also an area that caused much concern.  In line with the intent to project any programme made by Blacks as inferior you would be given an inferior budget.  At times this did not pertain only between the races but intra-ethnicity as well.  An example was in one department, TV2 this time, two producers would be given dissimilar kind of budget to do the same programmes, the same duration on an alternative basis, the reason being to arrest the progress of the one that does not seem to be towing the line, that doesn't seem to be agreeing with the point of view of the manager.    An example I have here is a pre-Xmas programme built up to the Xmas fervour that a producer had to go and do in Soweto.  On viewing the rushes, that is the video before editing, the manager discovered that there was a dog barking in the backyard and the manager wanted to know why the producer did not capture a picture of that dog so that it is seen with the owner of the house who had a car, the owner opening the door and the dog jumping in and driving around.  When the producer did say that, that is the programme was about capturing the pre-Xmas joviality in Soweto it is not in line with that kind of a mood to see a dog also joining in the celebration or pre-celebration.  But where the producer made a mistake in view of the thinking of the manager was, the producer made it very plain that it is not according to the black culture, nor to the Sowetans for that matter.  If you are not making the programme for the producer then that was it.  Finally the distortions. If be it in the news phase, second phase magazine programme or whatever type of a programme there would be a person either advertently or inadvertently would say anything that would be seen to be in line with an attempt to show there was something wrong with the government.  That would be twisted in a manner that would eventually sound like that person was confirming the acceptability of the modus operandi of the government.  This is easy to do if one knows how the television works.  It is easy to cut a certain portion of any extract and join it with another, it could be at the tail-end, and you take the whole chunk in-between that could have proved the negative so that in the end that which is portrayed proves the positive.  Thank you.