SABC ordered to apologize for SAFM interview with Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been ordered to issue a public apology following a ruling by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA). The order stems from a June interview on SAFM’s ‘The National Pulse’ featuring Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, the leader of March and March.

Commissioner Ben Winks upheld a complaint lodged by activist Christopher Rutledge, finding that the broadcaster failed to comply with the Free-to-Air Code. The commission ruled that Ngobese-Zuma made serious and inflammatory claims regarding immigrants, crime, corruption, and national security that were presented as factual assertions rather than opinions. The regulator noted that the SABC failed to challenge these unsubstantiated claims or flag them as disputed, despite a previous segment on the same program featuring GroundUp’s deputy editor, Daniel Steyn, who had contested the same points.

As a result of the ruling, the SABC was required to broadcast a summary of the commission’s findings and an apology during the same time slot as the original broadcast.