Florence Medhurst announced her departure at the alliance’s Johannesburg office, saying she would leave immediately rather than front a decision she had not supported. The appointment of Gareth Galloway, a former talk-radio host with no newsroom management experience, has set off a dispute over whether the alliance should favour audience reach or editorial experience.
The Southern African Public Media Compact coordinates election and emergency reporting among public broadcasters in six countries. Its staff association says the appointment was made without consulting the reporters expected to deliver coverage. By Thursday afternoon, broadcasters in Lesotho, Namibia and Zambia had told the compact they might pull their correspondents from next year’s shared election service.
A resignation in Johannesburg
Medhurst, the compact’s executive director since 2022, said the board had blindsided the newsroom by choosing Galloway as editorial chief. “I cannot ask reporters to defend a process they were shut out of,” she said. The board had approved the appointment at a special meeting Wednesday night, according to its chair, Lucas Lira.
I cannot ask reporters to defend a process they were shut out of.
Florence Medhurst, outgoing executive director
The compact has a budget of 18 million rand (about €900,000) for the coming election cycle, including translation, shared video and travel for reporting teams. Mika S. de Ruiter, who represents staff, said employees were not objecting to a broadcaster joining the organisation, but to placing a presenter with little field-reporting experience in charge of coverage across several countries.
Board defends its choice
Lira said the board had chosen Galloway because the compact’s radio audience had fallen by 22% in two years, while its online video audience had grown. “We need someone who can bring people back to public-service reporting,” he said, adding that Galloway would work with experienced editors and would not decide which stories ran alone.
Galloway, whose OpenDial Radio phone-in show drew a large regional audience, said he would meet newsroom staff next week. “I know listeners, and I know how quickly trust can disappear,” he said. He declined to say whether he would reverse any planned changes, but said the compact needed to make its reporting easier to find and understand.
The row has reached beyond the Johannesburg newsroom because the compact pools correspondents and broadcasts election explainers in several languages. Regiane Torres, a media researcher at the University of the Highveld, said member stations could fill gaps separately, but audiences would lose a shared source for cross-border results and verified updates. She said the dispute had “turned a staffing decision into a test of the alliance itself”.
The board is due to meet again on Monday and says it will appoint an interim director within 48 hours. Namibia’s broadcaster has asked for the appointment to be reconsidered; the compact has not said whether the other two threatened withdrawals are formal. Medhurst said she would hand over her files but would not stay on as an adviser.
