SABC 'a shameful circus'

2008-06-04 18:07

Johannesburg - The SA Communist Party is ready to participate in the process led by parliament to review the current legislation governing the SABC, it said on Wednesday.

The party welcomed the call by the Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri requesting that the board and management assess the SABC's serious internal administrative and managerial problems.

"The public broadcaster has recently been turned into a shameful circus by the consistent failure of the Board to provide leadership at the Corporation," it said in a statement.

"The manner in which this board has been exposed by recent developments, including the court judgements, as incompetent has brought to the bare what we have always said, this board does not have capacity and neither does it enjoy the confidence of our people to lead the SABC."

The SACP said public finances could not continue to be wasted on "factional and narrow political gimmicks" in courts.

The party said it had no confidence in the current SABC board - it could not lead an objective inquiry because it was the primary source of the crisis.

"It is against this background that we support a call for a public inquiry into the activities of the Board itself and whether board members are not guilty of misconduct and have failed to perform their duties."

The party called for urgent action on this matter.

It said the "crisis" had paralysed the SABC's focus, its task of adequately preparing and educating people about elections, dealing with xenophobic attitudes, preparations for 2010, the digital migration and many other huge challenges.

On Monday, the SABC group executive called on the board of the national broadcaster to step down.

This followed the Johannesburg High Court's dismissal of the board's application for leave to appeal a ruling that the suspension of SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu was unlawful.

- SAPA