Buthelezi: "South Africans Are Fed Up With Paying For Pro-ANC Media Bias"

Center-right Zulus protest pro-ANC media bias

Asserts Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the South African center-right, Zulu nationalist: "Last Friday, thousands of IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] supporters marched from Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown to the offices of the SABC [South African Broadcasting Corporation] in Auckland Park. I want to thank everyone who joined us and encouraged us along the way, for our march was peaceful, vibrant and productive. It is clear from the photographs that South Africans are fed up with a public broadcaster that allows itself to be run as a mouthpiece of the State. The SABC, as our public broadcaster, is mandated to express the voice of all our diverse people. It is not intended to manipulate public sentiment with political propaganda."

He continues: "As the Official Opposition in KwaZulu Natal and the third largest political party in South Africa, the IFP has repeatedly urged the SABC to level the playing field as far as political coverage is concerned. We believe citizens have a right to unbiased news coverage that fairly represents the views of the opposition as well as the ruling party. We are acutely aware that the ANC went into the last national election with an electoral war chest of R200 million [US$24.2 million]. Opposition parties are hard pressed to compete with that kind of money. We have only our voice to work with. If our voice is suppressed by the public broadcaster as we approach the 2014 national elections, how will South Africa know that there is an alternative to the ANC - that there is hope?"