Ramaphosa’s dithering threatens to sink the SABC

The SABC has entered its fifth month without a board of directors, jeopardising the public broadcaster’s recovery following years of instability and mismanagement.

This is through not the fault of the broadcaster’s executives and hard-working staff, but a direct consequence of government inefficiency.

It was no secret that the previous board’s term of office would be expiring in October last year, yet parliament and the state security department took their time in concluding processes that would have ensured the timely installation of a new board.

Once that process was concluded, a list of preferred candidates was submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office in December for confirmation and for him to name, among the list, a board chairperson and deputy chairperson.

It is disappointing that it has to take litigation for Ramaphosa’s administration to do what is considered basic in any functional democracy

Instead of acting with urgency, fully aware that the SABC could not properly function without a board, the president took his time and — as has become his approach on many other pressing matters  — didn’t even bother to explain his reasons for the delay.

It has taken threats of legal action by an NGO for the Office of the President to give some explanation as to why there is no new board after so many months.

It is disappointing that it has to take litigation for Ramaphosa’s administration to do what is considered basic in any functional democracy — to provide reasons for the action or non-action of a head of state.

We appreciate there is much in the president’s in-tray and that the public broadcaster — the biggest media house with the widest reach in the country — is a highly contested terrain where various political interests often clash.

But this ought not stop the president from appointing those who have been duly selected through a multi-party parliamentary process.

If there were legal concerns that made him hesitate to make the appointments, he should immediately have communicated these publicly and sought legal advice.