South African Broadcasting Corporation board chairperson Kanyi Mkhonza resigned following a board meeting on Thursday, the broadcaster announced.
”[Mkhonza] has decided to step down from this position in the interests of the SABC. She will however continue to be a member of the board,” said spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago in a statement.
Board member Ashwin Trikamjee has been appointed as acting chairperson of the board.
Kganyago said the matter had been communicated to the SABC’s shareholder, the Department of Communications.
Protest
The public broadcaster has been mired in controversy, with the Young Communist League calling for the replacement of the board at a rally in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Spokesperson Castro Ngobese told the crowd that a R2-billion bailout should be withheld until the board is replaced.
”The board must go, then they can get their money,” Ngobese told about 1 000 producers, technicians and actors.
Ngobese accused Mkhonza of using the SABC’s money to fund the Congress of the People (Cope).
”That is why they don’t have it, because the money is in Cope,” Ngobese said.
Babies in prams, household stars, bare-breasted women and a dog were among those picketing outside the broadcaster to raise concerns about the broadcaster’s financial troubles.
Reworking a song popularised by President Jacob Zuma, they sang Awulethu imali yami (Bring my money) as they stopped traffic outside the SABC’s headquarters in Auckland Park.
Marching under the umbrella of the TV Industry Emergency Coalition, the group said they were pleased they had united to highlight a growing list of concerns.
These include worries that the SABC is not paying for work on time, causing a knock-on effect in the industry; that it was not commissioning enough local content; and that it was not paying for repeat programmes.
The Imbabazane Cultural Organisation felt that African tradition was being sidelined and their dancers expressed this view by joining the march wearing only their traditional beaded skirts and necklaces.