The SABC has taken presenter Juliet Newell off air after a heated interview with Mamphela Ramphele, the chairperson of the Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust.
During the discussion, Newell questioned why the trust compared World War II to the ongoing war on Gaza, arguing that the two were different incidents.
She suggested that the trust’s statement appeared to undermine the Holocaust.
Ramphele rejected this view, insisting it was “by any definition” a Holocaust, and warning that such atrocities continue in different forms.
“If you look at the deliberate attack on children, on women, on unarmed citizens, and the starvation. Using starvation as a weapon of war. Tell me what that is. How different is it?” asked Ramphele.
“What happened in the Holocaust was a people, the Nazis, who decided that the Jews must be exterminated.
It is the same thing … millions and thousands [of people] are still human beings. Do we have to wait for 6-million people to be killed before we can call this what it is?”
Presenter not scheduled
Ramphele continued: “It is by tolerating the killing of one person, two children, or 10 children that they add up to 6-million.
“If we are waiting for 6-million [people to die], then humanity has no right to call itself human because to be human is to feel the pain of every person as if it were yourself.”
The SABC said in a statement: “The South African Broadcasting Corporation is aware of the matter relating to the conduct of one of its news presenters in an interview conducted with Dr Mamphela Ramphele.
“As such, SABC News management took immediate action in line with the SABC’s internal processes, and the presenter in question is currently not scheduled.”
The SABC asserted that it has established policies to ensure the dissemination of diverse viewpoints and a broad spectrum of news and information.
“The SABC’s editorial policies are aimed at building trust with the public and in ensuring that our content, in all its formats, continues to resonate with the prescripts of our public mandate, and more so in providing universal access to credible content,” it said.
