/ 1 July 2009

Parliament agrees to dissolve SABC board

Parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday recommending that the president dissolve the SABC board.

Parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday recommending that President Jacob Zuma dissolve the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board and the Auditor General investigate financial mismanagement at the broadcaster.

”We are absolutely certain the board is dysfunctional,” African National Congress (ANC) MP Ismail Vadi, who chairs Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications, said in the National Assembly.

”Even members of the board themselves do not believe they have the will and tenacity to continue with their duties.”

The Auditor General, he said, ”will investigate the manipulation of tenders, conflict of interest and other areas of mismanagement”.

Vadi said ”there had quite probably” been a meltdown in corporate governance at the SABC, which reported a financial loss of R839-million for the 2008/09 financial year. The broadcaster had asked the government for a R2-billion bailout.

Vadi said it was vital for the interim board and then the permanent board to be appointed as quickly as possible.

The SABC’s non-executive board had crumbled since the beginning of April. Only one out 12 members of the board had not resigned.

”The crisis we are facing today is the culmination of deep-rooted systemic defects in the machinery of the SABC,” former board member Nadia Bulbulia said in a written submission to the committee.

”Whether it’s the commissioning editors on the ‘take’ or executives ensuring that their unlimited car allowances are protected, to the industrial espionage of selling trade secrets to the competition, or board members and chief executives playing politics — it is all learnt behaviour that will take time to change.”

The board were summonsed to Parliament last week to answer questions on their ability to carry out their duties.

The executive board took questions from the committee on Tuesday.

At the hearing on Tuesday, axed chief executive Dali Mpofu backed a call for a judicial inquiry into the financial affairs of the broadcaster.

”Proper process needs to be followed so that people can be brought to book or cleared,” said Mpofu.

Earlier this week, the Communication Workers Union and the Media Workers’ Association of South Africa handed a 14-page memorandum to the committee, containing a spate of allegations that ”money has been wasted with impunity” at the SABC.

The unions called for an immediate independent forensic audit into the SABC.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, a member of the committee, questioned in the National Assembly whether a proper investigation could be held into the broadcaster.

”The question is whether a proper inquiry can happen while the suspects and culprits still work at the SABC,” he said. — Sapa