20 August 2020
The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys its heartfelt condolences to the family of veteran sports journalist and editor, Sibusiso Mseleku, who died of a Covid-19 related illness. The SACP also sends condolences to the entire journalism and sports fraternity.
Mseleku was a highly respected journalist in the sports sector in South Africa and the African continent. He was not only a sports journalist but, through his profession, also passionately advocated for sports development in the continent. At the time of his death he had just launched his own company, “Mseleku Sports”.
In his memory, the SACP reiterates its call for the transformation of the media to serve the people selflessly. The SACP also calls for people’s access to sports on radio and television to be broadened. Because of the deepened monopoly of MultiChoice in sports broadcasting and the damage caused by corporate capture of the state in the past years and its continuing legacy, the people are forced to purchase MultiChoice DStv decoders to access live sports broadcast. This has deepened the dominance and monopoly of MultiChoise.
The majority of the people, the working class, have been left in the dark in so far as access to sports live-broadcasting is concerned. The SACP is calling for the democratisation of sports live-broadcasting. This must particularly include the revitalisation of the SABC, the public broadcaster, and making public broadcasting the mainstay of sports broadcasting for the people, especially the working class and poor. Pay TV, subscription-based access to sports live-broadcasting is not a formula for inclusion. It is a formula for exclusion, with sports turned into a frontier of private capital accumulation.
Journalists and other workers in the media and communication industry also have to fight to safeguard their objective interests, ensure decent work-based turnaround of the industry, and drive transformation of ownership in favour of mass empowerment, as opposed to capitalist elite empowerment that can only benefit a few at the expense of the masses.
The most immediate source of strength for journalists and other workers in the industry is unity. The SACP calls upon the entire labour movement to unite behind the common interests of the workers. The recent attacks on remuneration in the media industry, retrenchments and the impact of the digital industrial revolution, on the one hand, and the opportunities it is making possible, on the other, require united journalists and other workers in the media and communication industry.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP
EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA
Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo
Central Committee Member for Media & Communications
FOR INTERVIEW ARRANGEMENTS, MEDIA LIAISON & CIRCULATION SERVICES
Hlengiwe Nkonyane
Communications Officer:
Media Liaison, Multimedia & Digital Communications Platforms Co-ordinator
Mobile: +27 79 384 6550
OFFICE, WEBSITE, SOCIAL & MULTI-MEDIA DIGITAL PLATFORMS
Office: +2711 339 3621/2
Twitter: SACP1921
Website: www.sacp.org.za
Facebook Page: South African Communist Party
