The ANC has instructed its MPs that the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications must restart the selection of new SABC board, four months after a final list was submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This is expected to cause further delays in the appointment of the new board. Ramaphosa has already been taken to court by NGOs because the broadcaster has been without a board for more than five months.
The SABC has been unable to finalise financial statements, budgeting processes, corporate and strategic planning and other processes that require board input and approval.
It has now emerged that Luthuli House has decided to reopen the process of selecting board members — which would violate the Broadcasting Act and subvert parliament’s role.
The ANC communication subcommittee is understood to have pressurised party MPs to “massage” the procedures to ensure the ANC’s preferred candidates are appointed.
A senior ANC member, who asked not to be named because he did not have permission to speak on the matter, said the party wants the parliamentary portfolio committee on communication to amend the list, citing objections that were raised during the public participation process and before interviews in September last year.
Luthuli House also wants the committee to address an objection by former communication & digital technologies minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who opposed the inclusion on the board of former head of news Phathiswa Magopeni.
Ntshavheni sent her objection to Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula weeks after the National Assembly had approved the names, concluding the parliamentary process.
According to the ANC source, the party will — citing “good governance” requirements — insist that the committee should not have included candidates against whom objections had been lodged.
Such objections ranged from concerns about conflict of interest and corruption to doubts over academic qualifications.
The source said it had been “an error of judgment” on the part of the portfolio committee to put those candidates through.
“The situation must be rectified,” he said.
The initial list is neither here nor there. There is nothing that says the 12 names cannot be changed
— ANC insider
“It is now apparent that some individuals on the initial list have problems that the committee cannot set aside and ignore.
"We are for good governance, we cannot allow a person whose qualifications have been questioned to serve on the SABC board.
“Equally, we cannot select a person who has a hostile relationship with the SABC management to serve as the overseer of good governance, ethical and effective leadership,” said the source, a reference to Magopeni.
Veteran journalist Franz Krüger, who was on the list of 12 approved candidates, told the Sunday Times he had withdrawn his name due to personal reasons.
The ANC source said this strengthened the party’s case for a revised list.
He said the party will use its majority in the committee to ensure its concerns on some of the names are addressed, as the list that was sent to Ramaphosa was “not cast in stone”.
“The principle is … there is no single name that is entitled by virtue of it having been put on the list. The initial list is neither here nor there. There is nothing that says the 12 names cannot be changed,” the ANC source said.
Former communications portfolio committee chair Nkenke Kekana, who now chairs the ANC national executive committee’s subcommittee on communications, said the matter was not final because it had been referred back to the portfolio committee.
He said there were different interpretations of the Broadcasting Act, which provides for the president to appoint 12 nonexecutive members on the advice of the National Assembly.
You cannot have members of the board that have question marks around their credentials
— Former communications portfolio committee chair Nkenke Kekana
Kekana said there were differing opinions on whether the National Assembly should send the president just 12 names, or a bigger pool of names from which he would make a final selection.
“That issue obviously is challenging the National Assembly to then do what it did previously,” he said, referring to Nelson Mandela’s term when parliament sent him 21 names from which he selected 16.
“Now with these contradicting interpretations, it is safer for the National Assembly to send 12 names to the president to appoint without any ambiguity. When there are various interpretations it is safer to simply adopt just 12 names and send them to the president to appoint.”
Kekana said the SABC should have a board with “individuals who have impeccable credentials and standing in society”.
“You cannot have members of the board that have question marks around their credentials.”
The issue of the board matter of SABC board appointment was referred back to the portfolio committee by Mapisa-Nqakula early last month at the behest of Ramaphosa, who questioned why he had been sent a “reserve pool” of three names in addition to the 12.
In consultation with parliament’s legal office, the committee decided to remove the three reserves and submit only the 12 core names.
In questioning Magopeni’s inclusion, Ntshavheni cited a clause in the King 4 report on corporate governance that she said cast doubt on whether Magopeni met the criteria for independence.
She quoted King as saying consideration should be given to whether “the member of the governing body has been in the employ of the organisation as an executive manager during the preceding three financial years or is a related party to such executive manager”.
Parliament’s legal office and opposition MPs objected, saying there was nothing in law that required the committee to consider the King report in appointing board members.
ANC MPs, however, resolved to seek external legal advice. On Friday, committee chair Boyce Maneli said members were still waiting for this.
He said the committee would have preferred expeditious finalisation of the board, but it appreciated Ramaphosa’s right to seek clarity.
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