Ferial Haffajee
SABC chief executive Zwelakhe Sisulu made a rapid about-turn at the weekend when he accepted a top-notch job at New Africa Investments Limited (Nail) instead of a very senior post at Independent Newspapers.
It appears that Sisulu finally made up his mind about a new job at the weekend and made rushed attempts on Saturday to inform Independent Newspapers’ chief executive Ivan Fallon. The announcement of his appointment to Nail was timed for a splash in the S unday news-papers.
Sisulu will leave the SABC in September to become Nail’s executive deputy chair in charge of its growing media, communications and information technology interests. Its newspaper interests include The Sowetan and shares in Times Media, which owns the Sun day Times and is joint owner of the Financial Mail and Business Day.
His departure from the broadcaster is likely to spark a race for the top position. Current front runners are the SABC’s head of programming for television, Mandla Langa, the deputy chief executive, Govin Reddy, and television chief executive Molefe Mokga tle.
This week Fallon confirmed that his group had been talking to Sisulu “on and off for months about a potentially senior management role with international ramifications”. He could reportedly have walked into the position of chair of the board, which woul d have given him key decision-making power over the group’s 14 print titles and its embryonic broadcasting interests.
The company was so certain of the deal that word had already filtered down to the newsrooms where his appointment was eagerly awaited. “I think they’re very disappointed,” said a senior staffer.
Sisulu apparently believes that Nail’s newspaper interests need more urgent attention than do the Independent’s. His combination of political clout and connectedness, his newspaper background and his recent successes at the SABC have made him hot propert y. In addition to Nail and the Independent group, Times Media has also been competing for his attention.
“He is tough,” said Fallon, adding “he stood up to well-entrenched management and staff [at the SABC] and came in for huge criticism. And he’s come through.” Under Sisulu, the SABC has turned around a deficit of R60-million and is now firmly in the black , and he has crafted a management team with a fine balance of programming and financial talents.
The favourite for the top position is Langa who this year started work at the SABC. His job is understood to be a grooming post for the top job as Sisulu’s intention to quit has been known for some months now. The novelist and journalist is something of a luminary, who served for five years as the deputy chief representative for the African National Congress’s United Kingdom and Ireland missions. He is well-liked for his independent mind, a quality shared by Reddy who is running a close second.
Reddy, a teacher and journalist by training, has more hands-on experience than Langa. Where Sisulu’s role at the broadcaster has been diminishing of late, Reddy has stepped into the gaps, taking hold of the engine rooms and driving changes.
Mokgatle has stabilised the SABC’s three channels and quietly made them a force to be reckoned with. But some indicate that the 39-year-old may not yet possess the gravitas such a crucial position requires.
This week the SABC began advertising the post internally and externally, taking the race outside where their headhunters are sniffing around for people with broadcasting talent, a good measure of political suss and a firm business hand.