The Big Debate



The Big Debate South Africa is a South African television debate series with a focus on pertinent contemporary political topics to South Africa. It is conducted in a "town hall debate" style with the presenter, Siki Mgabadeli, interviewing key guests, asking questions, and moderating the subsequent debate. It began running in 2009 and was devised by filmmaker Ben Cashdan. The show is produced by Broad Daylight Films Foundation, a non-profit production company, based in Johannesburg.

Broadcast
As of 2014, THE BIG DEBATE is broadcast on eNCA in South Africa every Tuesday at 9pm. eNCA is to be found on the Multichoice/DSTV satellite platform in South and Southern Africa on Channel 403. It also airs on the free to air channel e.tv every Sunday at 10am. The SABC announced that it would be shown on SABC 2 from 2018 on wards.

As of 2021, The Big Debate will air on eIndia.

Controversy
In October 2013, the South African Broadcasting Corporation pulled the show off the air just a few hours before the broadcast of an episode on Workers Rights, citing 'editorial oversight' as the reason for the show's axing. The cancelled show dealt in some detail with the killing of 34 mineworkers at Marikana by the South African police.

Campaign groups, including the Right2Know Campaign in South Africa and the Freedom of Expression Institute described the cancellation of the show by the SABC as censorship, accusing the national broadcaster of pulling the show to prevent government critics from appearing on television. Various commentators and media freedom groups described the SABC's explanation for pulling the show as far fetched, noting the irony that a TV series promoting open debate was cancelled on press freedom day. It was subsequently reported in the national press that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) had pressured the SABC to cancel the series just hours before the airing of the episode on Workers Rights, as this episode was to reveal that the NUM was losing support to rival trade unions (although the SABC refuted that they came under outside pressure).

Shortly after the show was canned by the SABC, it started to air on South Africa's independent 24-hour news channel, eNCA.

Since moving to a new broadcaster, ten episodes have aired. After a recent episode where young South Africans were invited to put questions to leaders of political parties, one critic writing in an Afrikaans newspaper described the show as "Too much of a shouting match".

History
Season 1 No of shows: 6 Frequency: Monthly Dates: February 2009 - July 2009 Presenter: Dan Moyane Executive Producer: Ben Cashdan Broadcaster: e News Chanel (now eNCA) and e.tv Locations: Johannesburg & Cape Town Topics: (1) Zimbabwe (2) The Elections (3) Crime (4) Sex & Culture (5) The Arms Deal (6) Health Care

Season 2 No of Shows: 6 Frequency: Weekly Dates: November 2009 - December 2009 Presenter: Redi Tlhabi Executive Producer: Ben Cashdan Broadcaster: e News Chanel (now eNCA) and e.tv Locations: Johannesburg Topics: (1) State and Civil Society, (2) Race & Transformation, (3) Jobs & Incomes, (4) International relations & human rights, (5) Education, (6) Sustainable Energy and the Environment

Season 3 In place of Series 3 of Big Debate South Africa, four episodes of The World Debate were produced for BBC World News, using the same format as The Big Debate. No. of shows: 4 Frequency: Occasional Dates: September 2010 - November 2012 Presenters: Zeinab Badawi, Redi Tlhabi Executive Producer: Ben Cashdan Main Broadcaster: BBC World News Additional broadcasters: Several national broadcasters in Southern Africa Locations: New York, Lusaka, Johannesburg Topics: (1) Millennium Development Goals: What's Holding us Back? (2) Is Homosexuality UnAfrican? (3) Does Mining Benefit Africa? (4) Why Poverty?

Season 4 No of Shows: 10 new shows, plus 3 BBC shows from Series 3 Frequency: Weekly Dates: February 2013 - May 2013 Presenter: Siki Mgabadeli Executive Producer: Ben Cashdan Broadcaster: SABC2 Locations: De Doorns, Johannesburg, Soweto Topics: (1) Does Land Reform Threaten Our Future? (2) Does Public Healthcare Stand a Chance? (3) Is Homosexuality un-African? (4) Can Teachers Fix Education? (5) Have Artists Sold Out? (6) Does Mining Benefit Africa? (7) Why Poverty? (8) Is Our Economy Racist? (9) Are the Police Out of Control? (10) Have we Betrayed Women?

Season 5 (currently in production) No. of shows: 10 Frequency: Weekly Dates: November 2013 - March 2014 Presenter: Redi Tlhabi Executive Producer: Ben Cashdan Narrator: Thabang Motana Broadcaster: eNCA and e.tv Locations:  Johannesburg, Cape Town, New York Provisional Topics (subject to change): (1) Workers Rights (2) The Right to Communicate (3) Maternal Health (4 Water & Sanitation (5) Youth (6) Transport (7) Corruption