Mkonza was removed from the position of chairperson she held for 18 months after a vote of no confidence by the board. Her tenure has been marked by an increasing lack of public confidence in the SABC and the worst financial crisis the broadcaster has faced. Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda’s office said yesterday he “fully supports” the board’s decision to replace Mkonza. She was previously accused of abusing her position, micro-managing, wasteful expenditure, losing the support of senior executives and the board, and failing to provide leadership. Although no longer chairperson, Mkonza will remain on the board — with Ashwin Trikamjee taking over in an acting capacity.

While the tense board meeting was under way at SABC headquarters, picketers gathered outside to protest against the late payment of independent content providers. The SABC is nearly R800-million in debt and owes producers about R60-million. The desperate corporation has asked the government for a R2-billion bailout. About 1000 representatives of the television industry marched to the SABC, demanding timeous payment for work.
Carrying banners and dressed in red, the TV Industry Emergency Coalition and the SABC Crisis Coalition demanded that the SABC board step down, in a memorandum handed to acting chief executive Gab Mampone.

The day-long board meeting began at 9am and lasted well into the night. Fellow board member Bheki Khumalo proposed a vote of no confidence in Mkonza’s leadership. The motion was carried and Mkonza agreed to step aside. Last week Khumalo, a former spokesman for ex-president Thabo Mbeki, accused Mkonza of gross misconduct, incompetence, breaching corporate governance regulations and lying in a letter sent to colleagues. Khumalo claimed that Mkonza misled the board in a campaign to get rid of Dali Mpofu, who was fired as group chief executive. This has since cost the SABC R15-million in legal fees and severance pay and Khumalo said Mpofu had been the victim of a sustained campaign. He wrote: “The majority of staff members of the SABC did not support the action of harassing, victimising and later dismissing Mpofu.” He said Mkonza had used a private security company — at great cost to the SABC — to spy or gather “illegal intelligence” on board members and managers.

The Sunday Times has previously reported that Mkonza billed the SABC R300000 for a personal bodyguard/driver. In March, a week after she and acting chief executive Mampone announced pre-tax losses of R784- million and cost-cutting measures, Mkonza went on a week-long, first- class trip to England to meet the BBC’s board of trustees. Her axing comes just three days after the board and senior managers met with the new Communications Minister, Sphiwe Nyanda. In a statement released on Monday, Nyanda lashed the board for failing to “deliver quality broadcasting services to the public”. He “raised his concerns about the negative public perception [of] the board and executive management’s ability to give direction to the public broadcaster’s operations”. The Times reports that he asked the board to “do what is morally right”, which was viewed as a call for it to resign en masse.

Problems in the SABC’s news department continue. The Times understands the SABC has removed TV journalist Miranda Strydom from the presidential beat, a post she held for several years while Mbeki was in office. The Times newspaper reports that it has learnt that Strydom’s radio colleague Dumisani Nkwamba has left the SABC for a government job. The journalists have been replaced by SABC staffers said to be “more acceptable” to the African National Congress (ANC) headquarters - Luthuli House.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said: “We are used to that when things happen to him or her, it is political. I don’t know whether their contracts have been renewed or not.” Strydom has been dogged by perceptions of a personal allegiance to Mbeki. According to SABC insiders, Strydom and Nkwamba refused to cover Jacob Zuma’s inauguration because they were “uncomfortable”. Nkwamba confirmed he has joined the public service and administration ministry. But he said it was “mischievous” to link his departure to pressure from Luthuli House. “I worked with the president [Mbeki] for almost five years, which demanded a lot of travelling. I indicated I was tired of doing this ... When I decided to join government, it was not because there was some kind of pressure,” Nkwamba said

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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