The Congress of the People has blasted the SABC for its coverage of the ongoing protests in Tshwane, Pretoria.
“ANC cadres acted criminally and violently in Tshwane on Monday. It left those who experienced it traumatised and shocked. Viewers of SABC would not have seen the mayhem that the ANC cadres caused,” Cope spokesman Dennis Bloem said on Tuesday.
Residents took to the streets on Monday and Tuesday, violently protesting the mayoral candidate nomination of Thoko Didiza.
And while the SABC has been covering the protests, it has not shown pictures of any burning infrastructure or vehicles.
This follows SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng decision to ban the public broadcaster from covering violent protests.
Bloem said the protests were a brutal and violent display of “dog-eat-dog”.
“ANC cadres are demonstrating that fighting for positions and defeating each other … is far more important than the health or well-being of the people. The ANC is trying its best not to publicise its problems… of its rule over the past seven years,” he said.
He said obsessive self-interest was subsuming the larger public interest.
“It is so disturbing to the nation that ANC cadres are blocking freeways, highways, railroads and toll gates.”
None of this, he said, had been shown on SABC.
“The ANC and the SABC anticipated what was going to happen during the elections and that is why both ordered censorship of violent demonstration. Neither wanted the nation to see the ugly face of the ANC,” he said.