Ferial Haffajee
Even for a priest, it has been an extraordinary baptism – fiery, bitter and unlike the private ceremonies the Reverend Hawu Mbatha usually presides over.
His recruitment as CEOof the SABC has occasioned a nasty public spat. If this quiet man had hoped for a quiet accession, it was quickly scotched. He has become a household name overnight, and he stirs curiosity in many circles.
There are many questions, such as: what does he think of SABC deputy chief executive Govin Reddy’s assertion that he is not suited to the job; that he was an affirmative action appointment? How does the reverend define black? Has he read the cumbersome White Paper on broadcasting?
There are no answers, because Mbatha has gone ostrich. His public relations firm, paid to help the corporation communicate better, has advised him to say nothing until the brouhaha goes away.
“The reverend’s not commenting on `the controversy’,” the public relations company said last week. This week it was: “Reverend Mbatha is not giving interviews until things have calmed down.”
“Things” have a way of not calming down at the SABC.
Mbatha has inherited a difficult corporation on the brink of yet another set of changes. It will be corporatised (the step before privatisation) and divided in two, with its public service and commercial arms separated.
Staff – insecure after four years of “transformation” and “change management” – face great job shifts again, and perhaps another set of retrenchments.
Short of praying for them, Mbatha will need to counsel cynical staffers to prompt productivity and innovation in the face of competition from private television and radio.
In last week’s Intercom – the SABC’s internal magazine – one letter said: “It is hard to imagine a time when the morale in this firm has been at a lower ebb.”
The magazine is instructive about the state of things at the broadcaster. It is filled with complaints about incentives paid to zealous TV licence collectors (employed by the SABC) and the many hundreds of thousands the corporation has splurged on its choir, which jetted off to the World Cup in France.
Mbatha is said to be a team player who is likely to delegate authority to the task teams and focus groups the broadcaster so enjoys setting up. He has the support of a strong management team put together on the recommendations of the McKinsey consultancy.
It was not his financial agility or scheduling panache which bagged him the job. Instead it was his people skills which swayed and then convinced the SABC board to give him the job although he was not the most qualified candidate available.
“He’s nice,” say many about this affable man who listens well and has enthusiastically embraced the various “new ways” the corporation has forged for itself in the past six years. That niceness comes across in his portraits, which show a man with friendly eyes and a wide smile.
Mbatha is from the old guard at the SABC and has worked there since 1982. His job as a producer of religious programmes on Radio Zulu enabled him to enlarge his flock to millions. Previously, Mbatha was a full- time minister with the Uniting Reformed Church.
The schism between old and new is still wide at the corporation, and Mbatha’s appointment has soothed those (mainly black) broadcasters who worked there in the dark days and believed their careers would suffer for it.
He says his long history at the corporation “creates a sense of confidence, [because] if something goes wrong I would know where to start looking in order to correct what is going wrong”.
But South Africa’s history is still in sharp focus and the SABC was a crucial part of the National Party’s hold on power and people, both black and white. The station which Mbatha headed began as Radio Bantu and was used to spread propaganda to a mass audience.
The new chief executive’s curriculum vitae shows that at some stage of his career he produced news programmes, which in those days were of the “total onslaught” and “terrorist” variety.
But Mbatha is not a political animal. His major interests have always been religion and drama programming.
He was good at his job and became the first black station manager of Radio Zulu in 1990 by seizing the moment: “I could see things changing in the SABC. I applied to become a station manager when previously it would have been construed as an offence for a black person to say openly they want to manage a station.”
Until then, Mbatha’s career had all the signs of a conscientious plodder who stayed in a job for years, moving slowly up the ladder.
But then came a meteoric rise. He was appointed general manager of the SABC’s KwaZulu-Natal operation. From there he was brought to Johannesburg and placed in charge of all radio programming, and then in charge of operations. This gave him a solid grounding in the very technical nature of broadcasting.
Ironically, his last job as chief executive of radio was the one vacated by Reddy, who is now the deputy contesting the decision to appoint the chief.
Born: July 13 1951
Defining characteristics: Nice … and bland
Likely to say: A platitude to make you yawn, like: “I have come to the realisation that South Africa is a unique country and must develop unique solutions for itself”
Least likely to say: “Yes, I got the job because I’m a good broadcaster and manager, but also because I’m black and African and don’t belong to the ANC”
Most likely to spend the weekend: Gardening, listening to gospel or classical music and praying