The SABC dilemma

July 5th, 2008

Something has to be done to break the current SABC logjam, but I am not sure the proposed new law giving the government power to get rid of the board is the right way to go about it.

The logam is serious. The parliamentary committeee wants to get rid of the SABC Board, the Board wants to get rid of its Group CEO, the GCEO wants to get rid of the head of news. Parliament currently does not have the power to get rid of the board; the board is now on its third ham-handed attempt to get rid of the CEO; and the suspended head of news is likely to return to work very soon. In this process, all of these bodies have damaged their own standing and credibility. Most damaged of all is the notion and sanctity of public broadcasting.

Parliament was responsible for the mess-up in the first place when it allowed improper political interference in the appointment of the board; the Board have twice had their bid to suspend the GCEO overturned in court, and are facing a third court challenge; and the head of news is deeply discredited as a journalist for his role in using the SABC in pursuit of internal ANC politics.

There is no sign that any of these parties are acting in defence of public broadcasting. All appear to be acting under the influence of the various factions within the ANC, either those representing the outgoing Mbeki grouping, or those in favour with, or seeking to be in favour with, the incoming Zuma faction. The most impressive gymnastics, however, have come from those who have flip-flopped, notably the GCEO Dali Mpofu, who managed to be a loyal Mbeki-ite until the day he became a loyal Zuma man.

Now Parliament has introduced a Bill to try and clean up the mess. It proposes that parliament be given the power to initiate an inquiry into the Board’s competence and capacity to fulfill its mandate, and to recommend to the President that it be dismissed and replaced if necessary.

This is an elaborate way for the committee to fix its own error. How much trouble would have been saved if they had done their job properly in the first place? And can we now trust them to be the custodians of the repair job? Do we not have reason to fear that they are just giving themselves the power to carry the intra-party fight through into the hiring of a new board

But the real issue is this whether we want to give Parliament and the Presidency - not just this lot which have messed it up badly, but any future incumbents - the power to hire and fire the SABC board. The reason they don’t have this power, just as they don’t have the power to hire and fire judges, is to ensure that short-term party politics cannot be brought into play the way it is now to undermine the independence of this Board. The appointment of an SABC board is too important to leave to politicians.

We have a Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Cassiburi, who has repeatedly introduced laws to try and give herself the power to hire and fire the board, and make the SABC more directly accountable to her. Fortunately, she has been frustrated in this. Now she has said she will have an inquiry into how the board is appointed, and it this will include looking at the proposal that it be done by an independent panel of respected experts, rather like the Judicial Service Commission does for judges.

If this is the case, this is a positive development. But there is a genuine concern that this is a smokescreen for her to try again to get through a law which gives the Minister (herself) greater power over the SABC. This would undermine its status as a public broadcaster and take it a few steps backward towards once again being a government/state broadcaster, as it was under the apartheid government.

But the law going through now threatens to pre-empt this, and give added powers to Parliament in reviewing and possibly firing the board. This will not provide any quick solution to the current dilemma: the law has to go through parliament, which will take a few months, then an inquiry would have to be instituted, which would take another few months, and, if it found the current board had to go, then that would have to go through a process, and then a new board would have to be appointed, which would take another few months. Hardly a quick or certain solution.

Should the current board resign? On the one hand, this will allow the mess-up to be fixed, and parliament could do it properly this time. But it would set a bad precedent for a board to resign under political pressure.

The judge sitting on the GCEO’s challenge to his suspension has called on mediation among the parties, and offered himself to do it. The Minister has said she cannot interfere, and seem to be enjoying a hands-off attitude in the hope that the resulting chaos will enable her to achieve her aims. Her position is unconvincing: there is a political crisis, and she is obliged to help sort it out. She does not have to interfere directly, but she could try and force mediation to occur through a third party to find a solution.

Quick and effective mediation by a professional expert is the answer here. It is a tough task, but it is the only hope for a reasonably quick solution in a way that will not damage the public broadcaster in the long run.

There are a number of problems with this.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Media regulation, Radio, TV