Communications & digital technologies minister Solly Malatsi has canned the SABC Bill, saying it does not address the cash-strapped broadcaster’s funding model while giving one politician too much control over board appointments.
Malatsi this week wrote to National Assembly speaker Thoko Didiza to say he was withdrawing the “totally flawed” bill. He said the bill deferred the finalisation of the SABC’s new funding model by three years from its date of passage.
Malatsi, who is also a DA MP and its former national spokesperson, said the bill in its current form was a danger to the independence of the SABC as it gave a politician — the communications minister — “additional powers” over the appointment of SABC board members.
At present, the appointment of directors is a public-driven process run by parliament through public nominations and interviews. Successful candidates are recommended to the president for appointment. This is in terms of the Broadcasting Act of 1999, which would have been repealed by the new bill.
Civil society bodies Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS) and the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) have long called for the scrapping of the bill, pointing to its constitutional flaws and its failure to “adequately” address through a new funding model the cash crisis plaguing the SABC.
The bill has also been rejected by the EFF and AfriForum, as well as other broadcasters such as e.tv and MultiChoice, as it seeks to introduce a household levy to be collected from all homes with a TV set and paid to the SABC.
Malatsi pulled the plug on the controversial bill when parliament had already started public hearings on it.
The bill was tabled in parliament by former communications minister Mondli Gungubele in October 2023. Parliament’s communications committee the invited written public submissions in January.
Malatsi told the Sunday Times on Saturday that he had invoked his discretionary powers to can the bill. “It’s within my ministerial discretion given my discomfort with the bill as it is without a credible funding model,” he said.
He said the matter was now a priority.
On why, as the serving minister, he was rejecting the power to appoint the board, Malatsi said: “The principle is that no single politician should have the unfettered power to appoint the board. [My action] will safeguard the editorial independence of the public broadcaster.”
The current version does not adequately address the most important element regarding the SABC’s sustainability: a credible funding model that will steer the public broadcaster to success
— Solly Malatsi, communications minister
Malatsi said he took the decision after wide-ranging stakeholder consultations and a review of public submissions made to the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications & digital technologies.
“Most importantly, the current version does not adequately address the most important element regarding the SABC’s sustainability: a credible funding model that will steer the public broadcaster to success.”
Despite the broadcaster’s financial problems and operational losses, the bill suggests a delayed funding model, giving the minister three years to develop a “sustainable framework”.
“This approach does not meet the urgency required to stabilise the broadcaster and risks perpetuating an outdated licensing structure that will not provide the SABC with the necessary resources to fulfil its mandate,” Malatsi said.
“I believe that trying to amend the bill is not right. Instead, the urgent development and implementation of a sustainable financial model will be prioritised.”
Sanef on Saturday welcomed the withdrawal of the bill, saying it presented the risk of returning the public broadcaster to the dark days when political interference in editorial matters was the norm.
“We will continue to reiterate that the minister, or anyone for that matter, has no right to overarching powers over the SABC newsroom,” Sanef executive director Reggy Moalusi said. “We can’t have a bill that’s taking us back to [a time of] editorial interference and a lack of clear policy on the funding model.”
Ironically, it was only last month that former minister Gungubele called on the communications portfolio committee to fast-track the processing of the bill, citing the SABC's dire financial situation.
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