Two more board Members quit SABC
 
The crisis at the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) continues with two more board members quitting on 24 June and a third requested for the whole board to be dissolved. Board members Khanyi Mkonza and Gloria
Serobe announced their resignation on June 24 while Alison Gillwald, the board's sole remaining non-executive member said she will not step down because she wants to uphold her fiduciary duties.

Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda welcomed the plea for dissolution and said he hoped it would lead to a fresh start for the broadcaster. "What is important is that you need to have continuity. You need an SABC board that functions. If the board says 'dissolve us, if that is going to take us forward', I will welcome that," Nyanda told journalists. 'What is important is that you need to have continuity'. The June 24th hearing saw board members accuse MPs of collaborating with SABC management and withholding the political support they needed to function.

Board member Andile Mbeki, who resigned earlier this month and is serving notice, lambasted the committee, saying it was an embarrassment to the country because of the kind of statements its members had made during the inquiry. The MPs grasp of issues was "shallow". "Some of the discussions that have taken place here are an embarrassment to the nation. I have held back my ammunition. Umshini wami (my machine-gun) is loaded. "The truth of the matter is that, collectively as a board, we lack the chemistry that is required for us to continue discharging our functions for whatever reasons." Mbeki urged the committee to dissolve the board urgently and appoint a structure in which Parliament would have confidence. "Please dissolve us, please appoint an interim board, please begin a process immediately of appointing a permanent board. "We are available as South Africans. We will continue to give the necessary support that is required. We will continue to answer questions that are required. "I have been saying this thing in a diplomatic manner, now I am cutting straight to the jugular - dissolve us."

Former board chairperson Mkonza accused the MPs of doing things behind the board's back to ensure it failed. She said the committee's "deafening silence" about filling vacancies on the board was proof that MPs had wanted
to get rid of it. "One of the reasons this board has not been able to stand on its own feet for a very long time is that you have (SABC executive) managers who have more political clout than the board, and this committee
has supported that," Mkonza said. "(The committee) has collaborated with management to ensure that this board did not function from day one. This committee has been silent on it. "I was excited, (portfolio committee) chairperson (Ismail Vadi), when you said this is a different committee and we have to expect different things. I have not seen that. I have seen continuous disrespect of this board - people talking to us as if we are schoolchildren."

MPs were to consult their party caucuses today on whether the committee should accept the board's proposal that it be dissolved. A decision will be taken when the committee meets on June 25th. The ANC caucus said the
resignations of Mkonza and Serobe made the appointment of an interim board more urgent.


Rashweat Mukundu
Programme Specialist: Media Monitoring and Research
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat
Private Bag 13386
21 Johann Albrecht Street
Windhoek
Tel: +264 61 232975
Mobile: + 264 81 367 5362

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