Barry Streek A controversial proposal by the board of the SABC to refer senior appointments to the Cabinet for approval is likely to be challenged in Parliament. Chair of the SABC board Vincent Maphai told the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on communications in Parliament this week that the appointment of three senior executives, including its CEO, would be referred to the Cabinet for approval. Although Maphai conceded there was no legal requirement why this had to be done, he said there was no provision in the law preventing this step. Inkatha Freedom Party MP Suzanne Vos, who is a member of the committee, said this week she was planning to launch a legal challenge to the proposal. Vos said she would lodge a private member’s motion in Parliament to make it illegal for the Cabinet to approve senior staff appointments at the SABC. She said she believed the proposal conflicted with the provisions in the Constitution governing the public broadcaster. “This move directly conflicts with the explicit and implicit understanding that we would transfer the SABC into a public broadcaster from being a state broadcaster.” Vos said she would request the committee to ask Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and Director General of Communications Andile Ngcaba to give evidence about who told the SABC to refer the appointments to the Cabinet.
Well-placed sources said no senior appointments to the SABC have been referred to the Cabinet since 1994. Vos said that if “indeed there is a loophole in the law to exempt political control over senior appointments in the SABC, the act must be urgently amended. “In exploiting the legal loophole in this way, they are trying to exercise political control over the SABC.” The Freedom of Expression Institute said it was “extremely disturbed” by reports that the Cabinet is to have final appointment powers in relation to the three key management positions at the SABC. The institute said the SABC’s right to pursue journalistic, creative and programming independence “cannot be protected if Cabinet is allowed to appoint people to such key positions, as it could lead to interference in the affairs of the corporation and compromise the integrity of the board”.