Ashwin Trikamjee, who was the acting board chairperson of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), resigned on Wednesday, the Ministry of Communications said.
“I can confirm that the minister has received and accepted a letter of resignation from Mr Trikamjee,” spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said.
Rikhotso said the ministry had “issues” with Trikamjee being viewed as the chairperson of the SABC.
Legal opinion obtained by the ministry was that Trikamjee’s appointment was illegal as only President Jacob Zuma is entitled to appoint the chair and deputies.
“Legally, the board of the SABC has no power at the moment to make any decision on the appointment of a chairperson,” he said.
SABC news reported earlier that the corporation’s “acting chairperson” had resigned.
Trikamjee, a Durban-based attorney, is the eighth member of the SABC’s board to resign after reports of financial woes surfaced in April. The SABC is currently seeking a R2-billion bail-out from the government.
According to Kate Skinner, coordinator of the Save our SABC coalition: “The fact that Ashwin Trikamjee has resigned doesn’t change anything really because many people on the board have resigned anyway. The thing that is an issue is that there needs to be urgent movement to the interim board. What Parliament needs to do is to remove the remaining board members and declare the board dysfunctional.
“It is very important that the interim board consists of people that have a sound broadcasting background, management experience and have a very good financial plan, because in the next six months a lot of the work they will be doing will require financial planning.”
SABC board members had been summoned to Parliament on Thursday afternoon to explain “the meltdown” at the corporation.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications heard on Wednesday that the SABC board was unable to make decisions or to function legally.
“The board does not have a quorum, so legally it cannot function,” African National Congress (ANC) MP Johnny de Lange told the committee. “There had been a corporate governance meltdown at the SABC. No procedure has been set out for us.”
De Lange said the SABC’s board would have to answer questions from the committee in terms of Section 15(a) of the Broadcasting Act.
“It will take two to three months to choose a board. What do we do in the meantime?”
De Lange suggested that a five-member interim board be appointed for six months to “give us some stability”.
“Once we have an interim board we can deal with issues like payments,” he said.
Board members of the SABC, including former chairperson Christine Qunta who resigned in April, technically remained members of the board for three months after their resignations.
Committee chairperson Ismail Vadi said it was up to the committee to take “swift action” to prevent the SABC from moving into a deeper crisis.
“We are all aware of the gravity of the situation,” he said. “We will have to get the best possible skills available to get the SABC out of its problems.
“There is a very grave responsibility on our shoulders to give decisive leadership.”
Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda said on Tuesday that an interim board for the SABC could be established within a week.
“As we face this crisis, we are looking upon parliamentary process to help pass a motion that will dissolve the current board … the president will then appoint an interim board,” Nyanda said.
Debt mountain
The Mail & Guardian reported last week that the SABC’s debt mountain is even larger than thought — the public broadcaster owes SuperSport nearly R100-million.
Recently, more than 1Â 000 members of the independent television production industry marched on the SABC demanding a change in leadership and for the SABC to pay up. But the M&G has established that larger players have also been affected by the public broadcaster’s financial woes.
Industry insiders told the M&G that the R100-million owed to SuperSport relates to Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches, as well as cricket matches that the SABC sub-licenses from Multichoice’s sports arm.
The insiders said that negotiations between SuperSport and the SABC regarding the money owed are continuing and that the SABC will be able to settle the outstanding millions only once it receives the R2-billion bail-out it has requested from the government.
But that bail-out looks unlikely to materialise soon. Communications Ministry spokesperson Rikhotso told the M&G last week that the Treasury, the SABC and the Communications Department will meet to find “a solution to the financial challenges facing the public broadcaster”.
“So far there haven’t been any movements in that regard but it’s something that we are definitely attending to,” said Rikhotso.
SuperSport and the SABC refused last week to divulge any details about the sub-licensing arrangements between them. “This is a contractual issue and we are dealing with our creditors directly,” SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told the M&G.