Ferial Haffajee
Zwelakhe Sisulu is expected to quit the SABC for one of many tempting media executive positions being dangled before him.
Senior SABC insiders believe Sisulu is likely to leave in the next “three to six months”. He has not taken the option of extending his contract as chief executive – which came up for renewal in September – for another two years.
In the running for South Africa’s top broadcasting position are writer Mandla Langa and the SABC’s deputy chief executive Govin Reddy. However, Langa is also being touted to head the new government communications agency which will report directly to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.
Indications from the government are that Langa is the government’s favoured candidate to head the SABC and he is said to have the personal support of President Nelson Mandela.
This would explain why Langa was mysteriously excluded from the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s new council, elected earlier this year, when industry insiders had him tipped for the position of chairman. He also recently accepted and then turned down an SABC programme director’s job at SABC television which Sisulu had offered him.
The media grapevine is agog with talk of job offers to Sisulu from Times Media Limited (TML), where he could take the position of executive chairman or managing director.
But many believe Sisulu could join the cream of black business at New Africa Investments Limited (Nail), South Africa’s largest black-owned industrial holdings company where Cyril Ramaphosa, Dr Nthato Motlana and Dikgang Moseneke serve as executive directors.
Sisulu could be put in charge of running Nail’s print, radio and television interests as Motlana wants to take a greater hand in the direction of Nail’s assets. Nail owns a 90% stake in the Sowetan and a controlling stake in both Radio Jacaranda and the radio advertising sales company Radmark.
It also has a small shareholding, but big influence, in TML and M-Net. It acquired this shareholding through last year’s Johnnic deal, which put 48% of the top- rated industrial holdings company in black hands, of which Nail was a major part.
Talk of Sisulu’s imminent departure has long blown through Auckland Park’s corridors. It has always been quashed by SABC representative Enoch Sithole, who did the same this week.
However, senior staffers believe that Sisulu can now be relinquished from the SABC to pursue a first love. He has never quite enjoyed the world of broadcasting as he does the printed word, and many believe his work is done.
“The transformation’s over,” said one. “Now we need somebody to make sure the changes are implemented smoothly.”
Said another executive: “This place isn’t a safe haven for dead wood any longer. He’s slimmed down the organisation. It’s leaner and more efficient. [The SABC has cut its staff complement from 6 000 in 1994 to just more than 3 000 today.]”
Sisulu’s term at the SABC has met with mixed reviews from outside the corporation, with some charging that he lacks a strong management hand. But the broadcaster, which brought in cost-cutting consultants to spearhead its radical staff cuts, has finally turned the corner with profits and some improving audience ratings.
His tenure at SABC, his political credentials and his background in print make Sisulu this country’s top black media executive.
If Sisulu takes the Nail position, his new remuneration package will outstrip the R480 000 a year he currently makes at the SABC. Ramaphosa and the other Nail directors reportedly earn about R600 000 a year, on top of generous shares in the company.