Ferial Haffajee
A leaner, meaner Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) went on show this week at the start of its most gruelling licence hearings yet.
By the end of March it must decide which of seven strong contenders will win the coveted private television licence. That’s a decision likely to be contested whichever way it goes and that’s why much has gone into making this a very different set of hearings.
For starters the IBA showed off a much more modest face this week: it is keen to shake off the reputation for graft and high- living which previous councillors helped carve.
The new IBA chose the simple Parktonian Hotel in Johannesburg as the venue. The hotel’s quality was reflected in the councillors as well. In previous hearings councillors occupied centre stage, making grandiose speeches and asking verbose questions. This time around, they did more listening than questioning, leaving that task to a team of local and international experts who have been studying the bids day and night for several months.
The result was a thorough interrogation of the Free to Air bid which kicked off proceedings on Tuesday. Fellow bidders complained that the powerful consortium put together by Free to Air would advance the advantaged because it includes players who have already made it in the industry and the likes of producer Dali Tambo and film- maker Anant Singh.
“That kind of structuring is hostile to the freeing up of the airwaves,” said Cawe Mahlati, the head of Afrimedia. Mahlati thought that Free to Air’s bid had been “dented” by the deluge of inquiries.
Others complained that the bid’s decision to leave 17,5% of its shares unsubscribed – – Kagiso Media was excluded from the bid by court order — weakened it substantially, because it left too much of a black hole.
The past of Free to Air’s managing director, Quentin Green, came back to haunt him when Mahlati questioned his previous role at the SABC while its management was in grip of the apartheid government.
She also suggested that the bidders be disqualified because their plans make provision for regional transmitter splits (to enable it to provide regional programming) and not a single service.
Free to Air’s two rows of directors and technical experts were largely white males. This didn’t go unnoticed by several participants, who also questioned the absence of women from the bid.