NATIONAL NARRATIVE: The SABC is dying. We’ll miss it more than we know when it’s gone.

Untrusted lifts, makeshift basement studios and patchwork maintenance show that the SABC is running on goodwill, not governance.

Amid all the debates about our news media and the strength of our democracy, one vital institution is being almost ignored. The SABC once had the power to both divide us and to bring us together. A stronger, better SABC would do more to strengthen our democracy than almost any other intervention.

(Before you read any further: the author works for two direct competitors to the SABC.)

A trip back to the SABC last week (where I used to present SAfm’s breakfast show at the time, SAfm Sunrise) brought home how dire the situation at the broadcaster is.

The lifts in Radio Park are not trusted, to the point where SAfm has moved from its normal studios on the sixth floor to a studio in the basement.

While the studio is perfectly serviceable, it appears the air conditioning is not. Even during my time working there, the air conditioning was incredibly variable in the building, leading to presenters sending each other “weather reports” so they could be dressed appropriately.

The corporation appears to be held together with duct tape and the goodwill and passion of its remaining employees.

Audiences have suffered, both through a lack of quality and through simply departing for other forms of news and entertainment.

It is no coincidence that during this period in which the SABC’s audiences have declined, so our politics has fractured.

As recently as April 2020, during the lockdown, more than eleven million people tuned in to watch one single episode of Uzalo.

Now, similar broadcasts appear to get only around one-and-a-half million viewers.

In the meantime, social media has flourished, with TikTok, X and others, including podcasts, now garnering huge audiences.

Now, credible surveys show consistently that fewer than half of South Africans believe we should remain a democracy and would prefer to see a dictator or military government instead.

While there are many reasons for this, including most importantly, the utter collapse of so many government services, the decline of the SABC must be a factor.