Jay Naidoo’s bid for greater broadcasting control has caused an outcry in and out of Parliament, reports Ferial Haffajee
Broadcasting minister Jay Naidoo this week fired the first salvo in a battle for greater state control of broadcasting when he rushed badly drafted legislation before Parliament to commercialise the SABC.
He also came under fire inside and outside Parliament for trying to strip the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) of its constitutionally enshrined independence, and for subverting a six- month-old public process to overhaul broadcasting policy.
In the context of ongoing government attacks on the media, his package of plans could be an attempt to wield political control of broadcasting, the most influential and far-reaching media in this country. South Africa is currently one of the world leaders in broadcasting independence.
The broadcasting amendment Bill, tabled this week, seeks to transform the SABC into a public company and eventually place it on the path to privatisation.
Together with another yet-to-be-unveiled draft Bill aimed at merging the country’s broadcasting and telecommunications regulators, it could give Naidoo greater control over the SABC specifically, and broadcasting generally.
If the Bill is passed, he will be the SABC’s sole shareholder and will have greater control over its finances.
Naidoo is also seeking a constitutional amendment to repeal a clause which enshrines the independence of the IBA. This could set off fireworks when it is debated by Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications.
On Wednesday, he presented the “SABC Bill” – as the broadcasting amendment law has become known – to the committee after it had received the thumbs-up from both the SABC and its board.
Despite the SABC’s approval, the content of the Bill raises many questions. Corporatising the broadcaster will change its shape and nature in crucial ways, yet this plan was excluded from Naidoo’s Green Paper. It is the first step to privatisation, but in the interim it could give the minister greater power over the SABC in the run-up to next year’s election as he will be its sole shareholder.
Naidoo’s representative, Mandy-Jean Woods, denied he was bypassing the Green Paper’s deliberations. She said the Bill flowed instead from last year’s restructuring of the SABC, when the McKinsey consultancy recommended the corporatisation of the broadcaster.
Not everyone is satisfied with the powers Naidoo could enjoy. Media freedom analysts, like the Freedom of Expression Institute, lobby for a more hands-off approach, with the SABC funded in three-year budgets, as is the case with leading international broadcasters.
“The draft Bill reduces the status of the public broadcaster from an independent operation to one subservient to the minister’s dictates. By having control over the finances, the minister could gain control of the public broadcaster,” said the Freedom of Expression Institute.
SABC representative Enoch Sithole said: “There’s nothing to panic about. Telkom and the Post Office went through the same process. The SABC cannot technically be independent of the government because it is 100% owned by the government.”
Sithole says a charter between Parliament and the SABC – like that between the BBC and the British Parliament – could be drafted later to ensure non-interference.
In Parliament, the Democratic Party’s Dene Smuts raised objections: “Instead of the current SABC board reporting to Parliament, there would be a board of directors who would instead report to a shareholder – the minister of broadcasting,” she said.
At all parastatals the relevant minister is the only shareholder representing the public, but broadcasting requires built-in protections because it can be politically manipulated.
Chair of the SABC board, Professor Paul Zulu, said the board had no problems with the Bill, which he believes is necessary in a country with limited resources and infinite needs.
“In principle, it’s about a public broadcaster that has to be commercially viable. You cannot see broadcasting in isolation from the rest of society,” he said.
Some broadcasters in other countries have been corporatised in this way, as have local parastatals like Eskom and Telkom. And it’s not all bad news.
“It will enable them to run the corporation like a company which is assessed along strict business principles,” said Jenny Cargill of the consultancy BusinessMap. The SABC could later craft a public share offering, list on the stock exchange, enter into joint ventures, or even sell off parts of its operations. But big ideas like these should have been germane to the Green Paper.
Also absent from the Green Paper is the Department of Communications’s Bill for discussion on the merger between the IBA and the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra). Yet in the Green Paper stakeholders are asked whether such a merger should happen at all.
The merger is in reality a fait accompli. The Director General of Communications, Andile Ngcaba, is personally driving the merger, having already drafted a Bill for discussion. He chairs regular unity talks between the two authorities. The merger has the support of some quarters of the IBA, but there are questions from outside. “We are concerned. What is the point in asking the question in the Green Paper when it has already been answered?” said Jane Duncan, author of the Freedom of Expression Institute’s response to the Green Paper.
Woods said the merger has already been part of a public debate in the Green Paper and White Paper deliberations which led to a new telecommunications law. “It’s necessary for efficiency in the management of licensing and frequency distribution,” she said.
But the fact of the merger is not being contested – it is common for telecommunications and broadcasting regulators to live under one roof.
The rules need fine tuning and honing; to do this successfully will take between 18 and 24 months and should not be rushed, as appears to be the case.
The IBA enjoys greater independence than Satra; the IBA reports to Parliament, while Satra reports to the minister. In their governing statutes, the broadcasting authority’s independence is more carefully enshrined and defined than Satra’s.
Many lobbyists, including the Freedom of Expression Institute, are pushing for more discussion before the merger takes place – ideally in the negotiations around the Green Paper.
In Parliament this week, Ngcaba told the portfolio committee the government would like to see the SABC Bill passed by the end of April, to coincide with the start of the new financial year.