EFF, eNCA tiff intensifies over Tabane rant
THE PUBLIC spat between news broadcaster eNCA and the EFF has escalated after the party accused the newscaster of censoring radio and television host JJ Tabane.
Yesterday, the Red Berets called eNCA a “white supremacist propaganda house”.
The two organisations have been in a bitter fight since 2019 after eNCA announced it would no longer be covering the party’s 2019 elective conference in the wake of the EFF’s banning of some media outlets.
In June 2021, a video went viral on social media showing EFF members making threats to some eNCA journalists during a protest in Tokai, Cape Town.
Following eNCA’s announcement that Tabane’s show Power to Truth would not be aired this week, South Africans on social media began speculating about Tabane’s future at eNCA.
It was fuelled by Thabane’s recent rant against the Government of National Unity (GNU), and the divisive role the DA was allegedly playing in recent times.
In his last episode, Tabane spoke of the DA’s anti-black posture, saying the GNU was bound to fail due to policy and ideological differences between the DA and some of its partners in the GNU, including the ANC.
“Black parties could not sit together and agree it has been 30 years, we do not have the land. We do not have the economy. The DA hates anything that is black people and transforming the economy so that it benefits blacks,” he said.
The EFF said eNCA’s move was “insensible but unsurprising”, accusing the broadcaster of pulling the show after Thabane’s commentary of the GNU.
“On the previous screening of his show, Tabane stated how, with a proven track record, the DA hates redress, affirmative action, employment equity, National Health Insurance, and black people as a whole. “This is consistent with Tabane’s platform which, even at previous broadcasters, confronts hard-pressing political matters. eNCA, a known propaganda machine for white supremacy, has once silenced a black professional who refuses to toe the line of ‘yes baas’,” the party said.
However, Tabane quashed the speculation about his show being canned.
“I am on leave. Please stop the lies. Power to Truth will resume next month. This is so fake,” he said.
But many of his followers remained unconvinced and questioned the timing of his leave, wondering why at the height of the GNU negotiations, the most influential political commentator was not around.
eNCA had not responded by the time of publication.