Appointment of an SABC Board should be expedited: SOS

The SOS Support Public Service Broadcasting Coalition says the appointment of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board should be expedited to avoid the potential destabilisation of the corporation.

The incoming Board can only be appointed by the President after the parliamentary process has been completed.

This after the National Assembly has approved the recommendation for the appointment of the 12 successful candidates.

The deliberations process at the level of the Communications Committee is yet to be finalised due to the slow vetting of candidates by the State Security Agency.

Monday marks the eighth day without an SABC Board.

SOS Coalition National Co-ordinator, Uyanda Siyotula says, “SOS calls for the SABC Board appointments to the expedited in order to prevent potential destabilisation. We reiterate our call for the Board to be made up of members of the best possible calibre and skills set, committed to ensuring progressive stabilisation by continuing and improving the turnaround strategy initiated by the outgoing Board.”

“SOS calls on the committee to be cognisant of its important role in supporting the SABC and to refrain from taking decisions that are in breach of the Act, and that undermine due processes. Instead, it ought to improve its internal processes to provide adequate oversight to the broadcaster and to ensure that critical Parliamentary processes such as board recommendations are conducted timeously to void this situation arising in the future.”

Political intention

Last week, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Boyce Maneli, refuted allegations of a political intention to stall the appointment of a new SABC Board.

The oversight committee said at least half of the candidates who were interviewed have been vetted by the State Security Agency.

It said that given past experiences, it doesn’t want to take chances and recommend for appointment, people who have not been vetted.

The committee added that while it wants the process to be finalised as soon as possible, it wants all candidates to undergo vetting and that so far the State Security Agency has issued security clearance for at least 17 candidates.

Maneli says, “There is no political intention to stall the process but it has been a prudent decision by the committee that they would want to have people that have been vetted and this is part of responding to the problem of entities including the SABC on state capture.”

VIDEO: Allegations of a political intention to stall the appointment of SABC Board refuted: