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Since the acclaimed documentary Miners Shot Down scooped the International Emmy Award for Best Documentary this week – one in a string of awards it has won – there has been a renewed call for the public broadcaster SABC and free-to-air channel e.tv to screen it.
Now the SABC has finally broken its silence on the film that shows the full extent of the police brutality on the striking miners.
The broadcaster’s spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told City Press that Miners Shot Down was considered by SABC as early as last year: “The SABC communicated directly to the producer and filmmaker, Rehad Desai in May 2014.
The corporation indicated that it would consider broadcasting the documentary once the processes of Marikana commission of enquiry had been finalised,” he said.
So now that the commission is over, will SABC screen the film? Kganyago wasn’t clear. His statement only said: “If there are available documentary slots then the two parties can continue with the discussion.”
City Press asked the same question of e.tv: Would they screen Miners Shot Down, especially now that it had won an Emmy?
“If Desai would like eNCA and e.tv to broadcast his documentary we will gladly do so for free,” spokesperson Matlapulana Ragoasha said today.
“Previously Desai wanted us to pay him to broadcast it.At the time we felt his price was too high and we had a documentary, feature stories and reports of our own.
“There are no aspects to the Marikana tragedy we have not covered as a news organisation. eNCA and the SABC also broadcast the Marikana commission of inquiry at our own costs. We have not been asked by Desai to broadcast the documentary since the initial release. We therefore extend an invitation to him to accept our offer of a free broadcast should he feel the film requires further exposure to a South African audience.”
M-Net was yet to respond at the time of publishing.
