Parliament wants deputy president David Mabuza to intervene in the State Security Agency vetting process which has delayed the appointment of a new SABC board.
As of today, the SABC is without a board after the failure by parliament’s portfolio committee on communication and digital technologies to recommend new board members for adoption at a sitting of the National Assembly.
The committee has blamed SSA’s tardiness, saying the agency has been slow to complete the vetting of board candidates who were interviewed a month ago.
Chair Boyce Maneli told the Sunday Times on Friday that, after being advised by parliament’s legal services that no provision exists in the Broadcasting Act for the recommendation of an interim board, his committee had asked the National Assembly chairperson responsible for committees, Cedric Frolick, to reach out to Mabuza. It wants him, in his capacity as leader of government business in parliament, to appeal to the relevant executive authority to fast-track, with due diligence, vetting of the remaining candidates.
The committee also wants Mabuza to communicate the delay to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is the appointing authority, and communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the government’s shareholder representative at the SABC.
Maneli wants Mabuza to propose, on behalf of the committee, that the three executive directors, CEO Madoda Mxakwe, CFO Yolande van Biljon and COO Ian Plaatjes, continue acting on behalf of the board until a full board has been appointed.
“This ensures business continuity in terms of the day-to-day operations of the SABC,” he said.
Maneli said his committee was confident it would be able to recommend a full-time board “in a few weeks” because, as of last Tuesday, seven of the 34 candidates had been vetted. The board is made up of 12 non-executive plus the three executive members.
Public broadcasting lobby group the SOS Coalition rejected the committee’s proposal, saying it was tantamount to the executive directors accounting to themselves.
“Under which provision of the act are they doing this? The board can only take decisions when it quorates, and they only quorate when there are nine board members,” said SOS co-ordinator Uyanda Siyotula.
“It’s a mess they are trying to clean up but they are not cleaning it up the right way,” she said.
The SSA insisted last week that its vetting systems were working well and it could not be blamed for delays.
Spokesperson Mava Scott said they could not disclose who they were vetting and declined to be drawn on whether the agency was stalling on the SABC appointments. On September 27, the communications & digital technologies subcommittee that is running the recruitment process for the board was told that candidates interviewed by MPs last month had yet to be vetted because the SSA’s vetting system was not operational.
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