ANC concerned by SABC board and management saga

The ANC's National Working Committee has raised serious concerns at what it calls the apparent breakdown in relations between the SABC board and management. This is said to be due to the leaking of a confidential internal memorandum to the media. In the memorandum the board chairperson, Kanyisiwe Mkonza, raised concerns about the management of the corporation under chief executive Dali Mpofu.

Members from the party's Study Group on Communications briefed the committee on the matter yesterday. Last week, ANC members of Parliament's Communications Portfolio Committee proposed a vote of no confidence in the public broadcaster's new board. They say the new board is not able to carry out its duties.

ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, says: “We need a working SABC that is operated in a non-partisan way. An SABC that doesn’t get entangled in factions, even if those factions are within the ANC. “It should be a public broadcaster that does its work above board and not be part of small programmes and be directed by small factions. So for that reason we don’t need either Snuki Zikalala or Dali Mpofu; we need an SABC that's working properly, that's all we need.”

The SABC board and management responded to the vote of no confidence last week by saying that they have taken note of the resolution. The ANC also called on the SABC to perform its duties as a public broadcaster and to stay out of, what it calls, political agendas.