Political parties are to be accorded free airtime on the public broadcaster’s platforms from the 5th of April to the 5th of May. Television and radio will broadcast the parties’ adverts.
Allocating time slots through a raffle, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) says this will ensure that voters are well informed of each party manifesto.
Icasa has allocated more than 240 party election broadcast airtime slots free. The airtime is going to be allocated to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for broadcast.
Icasa says this will enable voters to be informed of what they are voting for and is the independent authority’s contribution towards promoting democracy.
The African National Congress (ANC) received 52 slots, the Democratic Alliance (DA) 19, Congress of the People (COPE) 12 and others vary between seven and four.
There’s been mixed reaction to the allocation
Councillor at Icasa, Rubben Mohlaloga, says: “We will ensure that parties have that platform and voters to be exposed to what the party represents. Now we are allocating 240 slots, we will have 8 slots a day allocated to the parties according to the criteria that was set out.”
There’s been mixed reaction to the allocation.
Larry Varrie from First Nation Liberation Alliance says: “It’s unconstitutional that parties are not treated equally. In Parliament we will expire on 27th April, so all existing parties in Parliament are not functioning anymore, we are entering into a new era.”
However, Donovan Cloete from the ANC says: “We welcome the process and we think it was fair, we think it was equitable it gave all the parties even the smaller ones an opportunity to get their own slots.”
Mike Muendane from Pan Africanist Congress says: “This is a complete scam because they are using our resources to run this thing; they are using taxpayers’ money.”
Mike Moriaty from the DA says they are happy that they got enough slots. The adverts will be run on both radio and television at the times the parties have drawn.
– By Lehana Tsotetsi
