The resignation of well-respected SABC board deputy chairperson Felleng Sekha could signal a domino effect across the board, with more resignations expected soon.
Julie Kilian, a Congress of the People MP and its representative on Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications, said other members of the board felt their reputations were at stake and had threatened to quit. Board members Barbara Masekela and Magatho Mello had already resigned after infighting reached untenable levels.
A board source told the Mail & Guardian this week he hoped Sekha could be persuaded to withdraw her resignation during her three-month notice period.
Kilian said board members had told her Sekha felt pushed into an “intolerable situation” after a meeting this week with Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, who allegedly ordered board members to smoke the peace pipe.
Sekha would neither deny nor confirm she had resigned. The board’s loss of the deputy chair will be a blow, as she is a specialist in information, communication and technology law and has been the most outspoken member of the group opposed to the leadership of board chair Ben Ngubane.
The clashes at the public broadcaster were sparked by the unilateral appointment by Ngubane of Phil Molefe to the post of head of news, with the support of group chief executive Solly Mokoetle, who has been suspended by the board for, among other reasons, his failure to deliver on a turnaround strategy.
Nevertheless, a week ago the board formalised Molefe’s appointment, a decision welcomed by the ANC as a move to stabilise the broadcaster.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and Parliament agreed this week to hold public hearings on the SABC board. Sanef had sought an interdict after the press was barred from a portfolio communications committee meeting to discuss the functionality of the board, the appointment of the head of news and the corporation’s turnaround strategy. Opposition parties are unhappy that a date for a meeting of the committee has not yet been set.
No rush
While Ngubane was able to read out his complaint about the “dysfunctional board” in Parliament, Kilian said that the ANC did not appear to be in a rush to have the submission by the disillusioned board members heard in an open meeting.
The M&G has a copy of the submission, which could prove an embarrassment to the ruling party. It was approved by 10 of the 11 non-executive members.
In its complaints about Ngubane the board stated that there had been an “irrevocable breakdown of trust” between the chairperson and the board.
In its chapter on the “purported appointment” of Molefe, the board claimed that Ngubane said he had “scored” the candidates who had been shortlisted and was satisfied about who should be appointed.
“Shortly thereafter, as two of the panellists were leaving the SABC by car, the chairperson stopped them in the street, leaned into the window of the car and berated them for what he claimed was a subjective approach to the candidates,” they stated. “He asserted that only he from among the panellists was objective in his assessment and threatened them that he would go to court if necessary to ensure the appointment of his preferred candidate.”
Both directors had informed the board that they felt threatened by the chairperson’s behaviour, the board said in its submission.
The M&G has previously written that Masekela and board member Pippa Green were “screamed at” by Ngubane, who denied the claims in an interview with the newspaper.
“It is to be noted,” read the submission, “that on other occasions, and prior to the shortlisting process, the chairperson stated to other directors, individually, that he was operating under the direct instructions of the president of the republic and he was resolved to appoint his preferred candidate, whom he identified by name.”