SABC warned of licence-payer revolt

2013-03-12 22:33

Johannesburg - The SABC needs a board and management to dedicate themselves exclusively to rebuilding the organisation, the IFP said on Tuesday.

"If not, the SABC will move beyond redemption and South Africans will no longer believe that it is still 'the right thing to do' to pay for TV licences," Inkatha Freedom Party MP Liezl van der Merwe said in a statement.

"This requires dramatic, fast-moving and bold leadership on the part of [Communications] Minister Dina Pule."

President Jacob Zuma received a joint letter of resignation from SABC board chairperson Ben Ngubane and his deputy Thami ka Plaatjie on Monday. The president was still considering on Tuesday whether to accept it.

Van Der Merwe said the IFP believed the move was in the broadcaster's best interests.

"We hope that the remainder of the board will stay and recommit their resolve toward building a strong, stable SABC.

"South Africans deserve a stable SABC they can be proud of. Not an SABC that is routinely labelled a national embarrassment, and a sinking ship stranded in a sea of incompetence."

Ngubane and Plaatjie resigned after weeks of renewed tension at the public broadcaster, after Ngubane and the board fell out over the future of acting COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

On 26 February the broadcaster announced Motsoeneng had been "released from his duties". It said that Mike Siluma, a veteran journalist and head of radio news and current affairs, had been appointed to the acting position.

Shortly after that, Ngubane was quoted in a newspaper report as saying Motsoeneng had been reinstated. He said Ka Plaatjie had made this decision.

This prompted the board to issue a media statement according to which "the report... is regrettable as neither the chairman nor the deputy chairman nor both have the power or authority to unilaterally change a board resolution".

The board said it would seek clarity from Ngubane and Ka Plaatjie regarding the newspaper report.

Since then, Pule asked Parliament to "urgently" review the board's fitness.

- SAPA