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SABC future looks 'grim'
20/05/2008 09:36 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Johannesburg High Court ruled on Monday that SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu's suspension on May 7 was unlawful because the meeting where it was decided did not follow the correct legal procedures.
Judge Moroa Tsoka found that Mpofu's "right to participate fully" in the meeting was infringed upon and said Mkonza had handled the entire matter badly.
The judge said Mkonza's behaviour fell short of "a director who should act independently".
Mpofu was suspended a day after he suspended his news chief Snuki Zikalala, who was accused of leaking a memorandum on Mpofu's alleged bad management of the SABC to the Sunday Times.
The SABC will appeal the ruling, board chairperson Khanyi Mkonza said on Tuesday.
"After careful study of the judgment, the board has identified areas of concerns that we believe can only be clarified through the legal process," Mkonza said in a statement.
 News24 chats to Professor Anton Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism and Media Studies and director of the Journalism Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, about the ongoing crisis at the SABC and to find out what's going on behind the scenes.
News24: What is parliament's/the ANC's main objection to the current SABC board?
Anton Harber: The ANC majority in the parliamentary committee is trying to undo their own error. Late last year, they went through the process of advertising, interviewing and choosing a new set of board members. However, ANC headquarters intervened at the last minute to change three names on their list, putting business figures in place of labour and civil society representatives, and the committee voted these in. But there were strong objections to this interference and to the lack of labour and civil society representatives on the board and now the parliamentary committee is trying to repair this.
News24: What are the key areas of concern regarding the SABC's operations at the moment?
Anton Harber: ANC headquarters, Cosatu and the SACP are of the view that SABC News backed President Thabo Mbeki in his battle with Jacob Zuma in the build-up to the Polokwane conference. This has infuriated them and they are calling for the SABC to be non-partisan and true to its public service mandate.
Other issues have been raised - such as the mishandling of soccer rights, that saw Supersport take them away from the SABC; delays in conversion to digital broadcasting (which needs to be ready for 2010) and a projected financial deficit - but these are almost certainly just reasons to attack SABC management to try and force a change.
News24: How much involvement did the PSL rights debacle and the delays in the proposed switch to digital TV play in these turn of events, or is this purely political in nature?
Anton Harber: The poor handling of the soccer rights certainly discredited SABC management and left them vulnerable to criticism. It is not clear yet just how far SABC is behind in its plans to switch to digital broadcasting before 2010 nor is it known what deficit is being projected., if any.
But these are not the substantive issues, they are just the weapons to beat the SABC bosses and try to force some of them out. The real objection is political - it is a desire to drive out those who are seen to be Mbeki?s partisans.
News24: Why did we see the suspensions of Dali Mpofu and Snuki Zikalala so soon after each other? What's really going on here?
In the wake of Polokwane these two men, both great political survivors, were manoeuvring to blame each other for what had gone wrong. Mpofu was blaming Zikalala and trying to force him out. The new board chair, who took office in January, was hostile to Mpofu and sympathetic with Zikalala, and some reports have suggested that she intended forcing Mpofu out and replacing him with Zikalala.
Mpofu acted pre-emptively against Zikalala and the board retaliated against him. In the end, it came down to petty tit-for-tat behaviour as the various parties tried to reposition themselves for the realities of post-Polokwane politics.
News24: The Communications Minister has said there is no link between these two suspensions. Does this strike you as disingenuous on her part?
Anton Harber: [Her comments are] absurd and ridiculous. It is clear that one led to another in a game of tit-for-tat.
News24: In ideal terms, what is the SABC's mandate? As a state broadcaster or a public broadcaster?
Anton Harber: The SABC?s legal mandate and written policies are clear and unequivocal: to be a public broadcaster and to remain strictly politically neutral and independent.
News24: Does the final say regarding the SABC board lie with the State President? If so, are you concerned that President Mbeki has ulterior motives with the latest appointments?
Anton Harber: The President appoints the board, but it is the parliamentary committee that draws up the list of candidates and sends it to him. He can refuse to accept their list and send it back to them, but he cannot change it himself. He does, however, choose the chair from that list.
What the Presidency/ANC did, however, was to ensure the president got what he wanted by instructing the parliamentary committee on which names to put forward. They did so, but regretted it and are now trying to reverse that error.
News24: Is the current SABC crisis simply another example of the crisis between state and ANC leadership?
Anton Harber: It is certainly the product of the intra-ANC political squabbles before, during and since the Polokwane conference. In the immediate wake of the conference, the President ignored the objections of his political rivals and pre-emptively put his appointees in place. They are using it now to challenge his authority and force a reversal of his appointments.
News24: How would you describe SABC News' editorial independence of late? Many objected to a pro-Mbeki stance during the Polokwane Conference in December - has there been a shift since then in either direction?
Anton Harber: It is not easy to see a pattern after Polokwane.
News24: What needs to be done to solve this crisis within the SABC? Is it as simple as new appointments or commissions of inquiry or do its operations, procedures and oversight mechanisms as a whole need to be reviewed?
Anton Harber: The root of the problem was that the system allowed the presidency and ruling party to interfere in, and therefore taint, the board appointments, compromising the credibility and independence of the new board.
There is a strong push from supporters of public broadcasting to take the power to nominate the board away from parliament, where it will always be subject to party politics, and have it done by a body equivalent to the Judicial Services Council.
News24: Who do you think should ideally sit on an SABC board?
Anton Harber: I think that there should be an end to trying to have different interest groups represented on the board and favour individuals (technocrats) with the skills, expertise, knowledge and understanding of independent journalism needed to drive a public broadcaster.
News24: What does the future look like the SABC?
Anton Harber: Grim. It is not easy to see how it can recover from this humiliating mess or keep the talent and skills it needs to be a great public broadcaster. There is real fear that it will be sorted out by parliamentary interference, which would be an unfortunate precedent.
Anton Harber, thanks for chatting to News24
Read Anton Harber's blog here.
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