Faced with mega-messes in education and joblessness (don’t mention Aids), the ANC conference this week thought it could make easy headway in regard to muzzling the press. It's not taxing to agree on the statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). Not like wrestling with the ongoing problems at the country’s state-owned, and biggest, media house – the SABC. But delegates forgot Amilcar Cabral’s slogan to avoid lies and claims of easy victories. The notion that a conference decision on the MAT will sort out the ANC's press problem is a delusion for many reasons.

* The politicians have under-estimated the price of making a scapegoat of the press. The many unpersuaded, but influential, constituencies wanting to protect press freedom against the MAT have had their genuine concerns disregarded. The ANC has lost their trust.

* There’s also damage to South Africa’s international reputation by having pushed ahead with the MAT. Evidently, the conference forgot that that when you mess with the domestic press, the institution’s international counterparts mobilise in defence. It’s the ruling party that will feel the fall-out.

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It’s a re-run: rather than only reporting on South Africa, SABC is itself once again a news story. And for all the wrong reasons. The broadcaster has re-entered the limelight in recent weeks with tales of shenanigans, accusations and counter-accusations, divisions and denials. That’s not to mention suspensions and protests, budgets and spending issues, corporate governance problems and resignations. Plus there’s a couple of assorted legal actions and an attempt to cover up the dirt in a behind-closed-doors meeting in parliament. South Africans should laud the broadcaster’s long-suffering staffers who continue to generate a flow of programming. But the long list of surface problems has a lesson: you can keep changing the people at the top, but if the difficulties don’t go away then the reason has to be deeper. It’s because they are systemic. What’s endemically broken at SABC can be assessed in terms of cultural, political and economic factors.

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