“The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa handed down judgment on a complaint from the Flame Lily Foundation, which has ex- Rhodesians as its members. The Foundation complained about a statement by Mr Max du Preez during the TRC Report, which deals with the activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The statement complained about was: the truth, as we now know, is that this repulsive form of killing (that is, necklacing or the incineration of people doused in petrol) was first started by white Rhodesian security forces in the 1970’s and then brought to South Africa by the Security Police”.
The Commission granted the SABC the opportunity to file substantiating evidence. After having studied the additional evidence, the Commission came to the conclusion:
(a) that there is no evidence that the SABC or Mr Du Preez acted from malicious motives, as charged by the complainant;
(b) that, however, they have not provided the Commission with evidence that alleged atrocities in the Rhodesia of the seventies, included the incineration of live people by necklacing or by the setting alight of people after having doused them in petrol; and
(c) that, accordingly, the statement that these forms of incineration of live people originated from the
Rhodesian Security Forces was not substantiated in the documentation before the Commission.
The Commission accordingly held that the SABC contravened the BCCSA Code by having broadcast a statement which was not adequately sourced or shown to have been adequately sourced before the Commission.
The complaint was accordingly upheld”.