The Board of the SABC says it will continue to act in line with an interim court order from the High Court in Pretoria in 2017 regarding the appointment of executive management at the public broadcaster.
The SABC earlier denied it had appointed a new Chief Operations Officer (COO) saying the process was still on-going.
This came amid reports that the public broadcaster had appointed media executive Chris Maroleng to the COO position.
The High Court in Pretoria ruled in December that the non-executive members of the public broadcaster’s board appoint the executive members and not cabinet.
This was viewed as a major victory for those campaigning against political interference in the public broadcaster.
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has warned Communications Minister Mmamolo Kubayi-Ngubane not to repeat the mistakes of previous ministers by interfering in the appointment of top management at the public broadcaster.
Kubayi-Ngubane earlier claimed appointments of top SABC management were done via a cabinet process.
This is in apparent contradiction of the December court order.
EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi says the minister is not making the pronouncements out of ignorance.
“If the CEO of the SABC is appointed by the cabinet, then the SABC ceases to be a public broadcaster and then becomes a state broadcaster. Then she is dangerous, because we are shocked, because Cyril Ramaphosa said things will be different, yet under his watch, ministers are continuing intervening with the work of the SABC board.”
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