It would be fair to say that the SABC has suffered some brand damage over the past few weeks, although you could point back to the beginning of current Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s tenure for the point at which it all began to go belly up.

Hlaudi’s name has been all over the news of late, especially in light of the SABC’s refusal to show footage of protests (HERE).

As unrest in Tshwane escalated South Africans watched on whilst the SABC buried their heads in the sand, Twitter taking the piss as it usually does (HERE).

Now the latest instalment of ‘Shit Hlaudi Says’ is here for our amusement, with this below from MyBroadband:

[He] has reportedly ordered the broadcaster’s camera operators to be retrained as they “make him look shorter than he really is”.

According to a report by the City Press, Motsoeneng gave the instruction as part of his bid to change how the SABC operates.

Motsoeneng also reportedly ordered that no negative coverage of President Jacob Zuma be shown by the SABC, as Zuma “deserves a certain degree of respect”.

Motsoeneng told the City Press to speak to the SABC’s spokesperson – Kaizer Kganyago – about the allegations.

Kganyago said the report on a ban of negative Zuma coverage was not true, and people were “obsessed with Hlaudi”.

He added that the requested retraining of the camera operators was to ensure visuals given were a true reflection of the person being photographed.

No negative coverage of JZ – that sounds decidedly like the kind of thing that North Korea’s state-owned TV network would do.

Then there’s the retraining of cameramen (no women?) to stop him from appearing shorter – just stand on a book when being filmed like every other guy suffering from small man syndrome.

Still don’t think it’s time to push the panic button? This:

Journalists at the SABC told the City press that the news coverage of the broadcaster was “changing completely”.

Municipal and political stories have begun disappearing and the focus has shifted to covering “ceremonies rather than issues”.

My SABC forecast for the coming months? Hlaudi with a chance of propaganda.

This just in – acting SABC CEO Jimi Matthews has resigned in protest at the recent changes. Here’s News24:

“For many months I have compromised the values that I hold dear under the mistaken belief that I could be more effective inside the SABC than outside, passing comment from the side-lines.”

Matthews said the “corrosive atmosphere” had impacted negatively on his moral judgement, and made him complicit in decisions he “was not proud of”.

“I also wish to apologise to the many people who I’ve let down by remaining silent when my voice needed to be heard,” his letter continued.

“What is happening at the SABC is wrong and I can no longer be a part of it.”

The wheels are well and truly coming off.

[sources:mybroadband&news24]