SABC presenter Juliet Newell has returned to the air after being removed from our public broadcaster airwaves after her interview with Dr Mamphela Ramphele, chair of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.

This is how the interview went after Newell asked Dr Ramphele if she didn’t think her statement likening the famine in Gaza to the Holocaust was “provocative”.

Dr Ramphele answered: “What’s provocative? It is a holocaust.”

“But how can you compare them?” Newell countered.

“Why can’t I compare them?” Ramphele volleyed back.

“Because they’re different,” Newell answered and adding: “I’m not saying Gaza isn’t horrific. It is horrific. But comparing them, it almost undermines what the Holocaust was all about.”

This interview outraged many from different walks of life in particular the Palestine Solidarity Alliance and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other solidarity groups who campaigned around the issue as well. The ANC Study Group in parliament engaged, as did the SA Zionist Federation among the regular Palestinian solidarity groups.

The ANC Study Group on Communications and Digital Technologies in their statement of August 29, 2025 were furious and “condemn(ed) the incident in the strongest terms” but saw this conduct as an aberration. In addition, they wrote of their contact with the SABC GCEO who “provided the necessary assurance that a formal internal process is currently underway to fully and appropriately address this incident. This constructive engagement, initiated by the Study Group, was crucial in ensuring accountability and upholding the integrity of our public broadcaster,” they added.

In the face of such backlash the SABC was forced to act. In a statement, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) confirmed that it “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 is enjoined by various legislation frameworks that enforces compliances to adhering to the Broadcasting Act 4 of 1999 and its own Editorial Policies that ensure the offering of plurality of views and a variety of news and information.”

It further added that the broadcaster’s editorial policies were designed to maintain trust with the public.

“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.”

Zionist groups were equally unhappy and argued that SABC action was “not a lapse of judgement, it is an attack on editorial independence”. Some groups took offence at Dr Mamphele’s view that what was happening in Gaza was a holocaust and/or a genocide. Zionist organisations said that Dr Ramphele, by defining the ethnic cleansing and human rights crimes and violations against Palestinians in Gaza as a ‘Holocaust’, was “an extraordinary and provocative claim”.

The Zionist Federation went on to demand that the SABC reverse its decision to suspend a journalist, following external pressure over their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Furthermore, they demanded among other points that the SABC subject the suspension to a transparent and independent review, and they must  issue a public apology. They further affirmed that the  SABC must affirm that editors, not lobbyists, set newsroom standards. In this regard, they asked for SANEF to defend journalists’ right to interrogate inflammatory claims without fear or favour.

On October 3, 2025 #SABCNews Juliet Newell was snuck back on air, quietly and at a late hour. She was reporting on the two-day Local Government Indaba and can be seen interviewing governance expert, Professor Angelo Dube. One thing for sure, all the groups – left, right and centre – agreed on the need for transparency and accountability by the public broadcaster.

Thus the Outstanding Questions remain:

• The SABC promised a formal process to “fully and appropriately address this incident”. Was this process completed?
• Why have the findings or outcomes of this internal review not been shared with the public?
• Does Newell’s return indicate she has been counselled in a manner that upholds public trust, concluding the matter?

* Hassen Lorgat is a media justice activist.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. 

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