'The recommended SABC Board candidates should be appointed'

Parliament’s Senior Legal Adviser Advocate Frank Jenkins has told the sub-committee that there is a reasonable legal expectation that the 12 recommended SABC Board candidates should be appointed.

The term of the previous SABC Board ended on October 15 last year. Since then, the public broadcaster has had no Board.

Jenkins says, “Chair, I have a concern that these members have already been through a process where the House has adopted the report of the committee. So, there are certain legal expectations on some of these members, Chair. Of course not on the reserve pool because they were never meant to be appointed immediately in any event, but there are certain questions that can be raised, and I have not studied the detail of the law here. But the National Assembly has adopted a resolution at least with these 12 members unless there is a reason in law why one of these members cannot be appointed.”

The committee met last night until the early hours of the morning to get a legal opinion and tried to map the way forward on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s letter seeking legal clarity on the names.

The 12 nominated candidates and three other names were approved by Parliament last December and sent to Ramaphosa to nominate the 12 candidates.

Ramaphosa has sent a letter back to Congress seeking proper legal clarification regarding the additional names approved by the House of Representatives.