The SABC Board has distanced itself from alleged unlawful behaviour and reiterates its commitment to independence from both political and commercial interests in connection with the Multi-Choice agreement.
A set of board minutes of the SABC dated the 6th of June 2013, suggested that MultiChoice sought to pay the SABC R100 million for its 24-hour news channel in exchange for the Public Broadcaster’s political influence over digital migration.
The minutes form part of hundreds of documents provided by the SABC in December 2016 to the Ad Hoc Committee on the SABC Inquiry.
The Democratic Alliance has sent a letter today to Communications regulator ICASA, raising the issue.
FULL MEDIA STATEMENT
SABC BOARD STATEMENT ON MULTICHOICE AGREEMENT
Johannesburg, Wednesday, 29 November 2017 – The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board has noted the publication today of various internal SABC minutes dealing with the Multichoice agreement (dated between 2013 and 2016). The content of these minutes and the reported statements of the various individuals identified underlines why the Multichoice agreement and its related documentation was referred to the SIU for urgent investigation.
The SABC Board distances itself from the alleged unlawful behaviour and reiterates its commitment to independence from both political and commercial interests. As required by the Broadcasting Act and our competition laws, the SABC cannot allow any competitor or commercial operator to interfere with and to unduly influence SABC policy and commercial strategy.
The Multichoice agreement was first brought to Parliament’s attention during Ad Hoc Committee’s inquiry into the SABC last year and, like the 2017 Interim Board before us, the SABC Board and management will continue to cooperate with any investigation into the alleged wrongdoing that led up to the signing of the Multichoice Agreement.
Issued by the Chairperson of the SABC Board, Mr Bongumusa Makhathini on behalf of the SABC Board.
