Minister Jay Naidoo has hit the first snag in attempting to rush the sale of SABC’s radio stations, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy
A BID by Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Minister Jay Naidoo to speed up the sale of six SABC radio stations by amending the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act is likely to fail.
While Naidoo wants the IBA to approve licence applications within one month instead of three, he first has to cut through the red tape involved in amending the Act.
Naidoo, who initially wanted the IBA to complete the process by the end of July, has encountered a snag: the unexpected early winter adjournment of Parliament.
This means Naidoo can only table an amendment with Cabinet when Parliament resumes in the second week of August — an action, in any event, which does not guarantee a place on Cabinet’s agenda.
The Cabinet could take two months before hearing Naidoo’s proposed amendment. Opposition parties may object to the proposal as a way of cutting corners, and it could very well be rejected.
And, even if it is approved, the process may take just as long as the IBA will take to grant the first licences at the end of September.
Because of Parliament’s early adjournment, Naidoo was forced to extend the deadline for the IBA to issue licences to the end of August — just a month before the deadline set in the existing Act for the IBA to announce the initial successful licencees.
The current Act allows the IBA to announce successful licence applications over a period of three months, beginning at the end of September, announcing the rest at the end of November and December.
On Thursday last week, the SABC handed the IBA its preferred list of potential radio owners. The processes taken over by the IBA include: applications for licences by all bidders who made the SABC’s shortlist (not only the preferred list) have to be invited; these have to be gazetted; and a two-week period must be allowed for objections, followed by public hearings.
Sources close to the IBA are perplexed that the minister wants to ”short-change” the process by one month.
However, telecommunications representative Connie Molusi says Naidoo is attempting to ”assist the IBA to expedite licensing” by amending the Act.
Although the process is frustrating and hobbled by unrelenting bureaucracy, it represents a transformation within South African media. For the first time ever, the sale of the SABC radio stations allows for major black consortiums, comprising unions, banks and newspaper houses, to enter the arena of radio which for years has been dominated by the SABC.
The consortiums involved in the bidding include strong black empowerment shareholdings via New Africa Investments Limited, Masakhane Development Trust and the Mineworkers’ Investment Company. Newspaper stables have also made bids with black consortiums, including Independent Newspapers and Times Media Limited.
The sale of the radio stations is expected to raise between R332-million and R606-million, with Cabinet deciding how the money is to be spent.
SABC general manager of group communications Enoch Sithole says the SABC was invited to make an application for funds.