Unprecedented deluge of SABC board nominations expected

Trade unionists and other have demanded changes to the way things are done but as the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, Ismail Vadi, has pointed out, no procedures can be changed without changing the law itself.

Transparent

Ironically, many of those who claim that the process is not transparent enough, have never bothered in the past to attend the various forums in which nominations are discussed.

Any South African citizen can nominate anyone of their choice and when the multi-party Portfolio Committee has created a shortlist largely by eliminating those who don't have suitable qualifications for the post, each individual on the shortlist is interviewed by the committee.

This interview process, for example, is open to the public.

Various stages

Once the Portfolio Committee has made its selection of final candidates this still has to be debated in the National Assembly before they can be officially appointed by the president.

Selection of the new SABC board follows the same procedure as other entities such as the International Marketing Council and Media Development and Diversity Agency.

And while no-one will disagree that these procedures could possibly be improved, the point is that this would mean changing the law of the land.

All of which would take time. And this is something the SABC issue does not have.

No time to dally

A former board member once told me that it can take a year or two for a board member to get to grips with the complexities of the SABC.

Perhaps so, but this is a luxury the new board will not have. It will not be able to take years or even months or even weeks to get to know the lie of the land. Hopefully, it will be well enough experienced in the world of business and broadcasting to be able to hit the ground running and starting making a difference from day one.