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The South African Communist Party (SACP) notes and is relieved that the appointment of the SABC Board has been finalised. The SACP has over many years worked with many civil society organisations to ensure that the SABC remains focused on its important developmental and public mandate to educate, inform and entertain. It is for this reason that we were amongst the first organisations to raise alarm when we became aware of the growing dominance of commercial capitalist interests overriding those of public service at the SABC.

The SABC Board has a critical role in ensuring that in its oversight and strategic guidance of management it helps SABC to stay true to its developmental mandate. This must include ensuring that as management attracts talent to work at SABC, such staff are trained and retooled to understand that SABC is different from other commercial and capitalist media platforms. The SABC’s agenda is a public service one guided by the Constitution and the Public Service Broadcasting Charter. It has to be sensitive to and respond to the needs for education, information and entertainment of the poor and the working-class, and not only the elitist and moneyed capitalist interests. 

There are a number of other lessons that must be learnt from the process of selection of the SABC Board.

First, the National Assembly must start the process of appointment of a new Board, and for other entities as well within its purview, at least six months before the end of term. This will avoid unnecessary delays that have been experienced during this process of selecting the SABC Board.

Secondly, Parliament should be stringent in ensuring that basic governance and ethical principles are observed. For example, it is unfortunate and regrettable that Parliament saw it fit to recommend a recently fired executive of news at the SABC to be one of the Board members. This happens when the Group CEO, who was part of the disciplinary process, is still an executive member of the same board, and therefore the fired executive will be his boss. This happens in a period of less than a year since the same executive was fired. There is an obvious conflict of interest in this case which could have been avoided by allowing a reasonable cooling-off period before such a person is considered to serve on the Board. We see this as a potential source of very serious problems that the Board and the Committee of Parliament will have to monitor closely and manage.

The SACP also strongly believes that in selecting board members of the SABC, there must be careful consideration of the skills pool in the Board. We notice that there are many Board members with news background.  Journalistic skills are needed on the Board. The SABC is not just a news institution. It has a much broader developmental mandate and role, and that it is simultaneously playing a crucial role as a repository of our history, national memory and cultural diversity in our country, over and above playing its education and information role. It is important, therefore, to have a pool of Board members who bring a much broader understanding and expertise in other areas of importance in the role of the public broadcaster. Equally, the SABC is a complex organisation that is multidisciplinary in nature which requires a variety of skills and knowledge in its Board collective.

The SACP will continue to play its activist role in closely monitoring that the SABC plays its broader developmental role especially in relation to the interests of the overwhelming majority of the workers and poor of our country.

Issued by SACP