CHICKENS are at last coming home to roost for South African Airways. Business rescue basically means it will survive in some form in private hands, or simply disappear into liquidation. Either way it will be a monument to ANC corruption, government incompetence and trade union fantasy.
This could be a catalyst for short-term relief for the national economy and the redirection of taxpayer contributions to more worthy objectives. The next institution to be sold off should be the radio arm of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Intended in the post-1994 dispensation as a public service broadcaster, it is now a shocking travesty. The authoritarian narcissist Hlaudi Motsoeneng may be long gone. His malign legacy lives on.
Public service broadcasting is designed to inform the citizenry and present a range of educated views on key issues. Few reliable commentators are now heard. Instead, SAFM is little more than a forum for the half-baked views and fake news produced by phone-in sessions; and, over the weekend, endless music.
SAFM is not very different from a commercial radio station. Why should the SABC be supported by the taxpayer for these offerings? The damage is immense. South Africans who listen to the radio no longer have a reliable source of opinion, just a stream of increasingly ignorant comment and wallpaper noise. It’s another disturbing nail in the coffin of democracy and gesture to populism,