The SABC has allegedly done it again. They have banned yet another political partiy’s advert.
The EFF’s advert starts by referring to the Marikana Massacre (making reference to police brutality similarly to the DA advert). The red berets have decided to go the more emotionally-charged route. It starts off with one Mrs. Zameka Nungu who describes her heartache at the death of her husband, who was one of the striking miners “shot and killed by police”. This is then followed by a slide show of graphic police brutality images.
The EFF gets physical with E-tolls
The party claims that if you #VoteEFF, the child grant will increase to R 600 and old age grant to R2600. In true red beret army style they also claim that they will destroy E-tolls physically. During the ad we get a glimpse of Julius Malema claiming to know all about your pain and your suffering. He finishes by saying that you should vote against the empty promises of the last 20 years and against Nkandla corruption.
Those in glass houses…
It’s clear that the EFF has jumped onto the “attack the ANC” bandwagon. Similarly to the DA’s advert, they take the ANC to task for a number of the same (true) issues. But if you are still under investigation for fraud and corruption should you really be calling attention to someone else’s moral flaws? Particularly the same person you pledged to kill for not too long ago. Well that of course was way back before the ANC turned on him. Now all of a sudden, Zuma has become an ” illiterate, self-serving dog ” – oh, and the dog is also a thief, according to Malema. Maybe Malema’s corruption is but a storm in a tea cup when compared to that of Zuma’s but throwing stones from a glass house is still not a good idea – even if yours doesn’t cost R250 million.
SABC bans EFF AD
Despite your thoughts on the mouth it comes from, the accusations made against in the advert are not unfounded. But, the SABC has decided to pull the advert off air. Since the SABC failed to convince a judge that the DA’s advert incites violence on police, they’ve decided to pull the EFF’s ad on the basis that the party incites violence by claiming it will physically remove the e-tolling system.
Eff-ing with the wrong party
The party refuses to take it lying down though and tweeted this…
SABC has banned the EFF Elections Advert because of eTolls. They’ve touched us on the wrong side. We’r going for them http://t.co/jN1KbYseL6
— EconomicFreedom (@EconFreedomZA) April 21, 2014
” The SABC has started a war it cannot win” and “SABC has banned the EFF Elections Advert because of eTolls. They’ve touched us on the wrong side. We’r[e](they forgot the ‘e’ in their Tweet) going for them.”
SABC has started a war it can’t win, eTolls are not in popular demand. The #EFFAdvert is! #UnbanEFFAd http://t.co/jN1KbYseL6
— EconomicFreedom (@EconFreedomZA) April 21, 2014
The EFF says in an official statement they have launched an urgent complaint with ICASA and will roll out mass action on 29 April, 2013 until their advert is aired as its banning is a clear violation of the freedom of expression. View the full statement here: https://www.facebook.com/economicfreedomstruggle
Should they be picking fights with political parties?
In keeping with its mandate to be impartial and grant everyone in the country their constitutional right to information, the SABC should be silent on political issues especially as they are government-owned. It’s not their place to get involved and constantly take on every party that stands against the ANC. They lost the first battle (against the DA) and the SABC seems to be getting more bad publicity than the ANC has because of these ads. Wouldn’t you now want to save face, Thlaudi?
The saga continues.
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