Time for SABC to wrap it up and get real

The situation at present is ludicrous, childish and smacks so heavily of political brown-nosing that if it weren't so serious, it would be hysterically funny. [Yesterday's Johannesburg High Court case between thrice-suspended SABC group CEO Dali Mpofu and the SABC board had been postponed yet again until Tuesday, 8 July 2008, but the journalists, camera crews and photographers who had arrived to cover the proceedings had not been informed of this.]

Think about it. Late last year the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communication went through the process of selecting a new SABC board. The House of Assembly approved its choice. President Mbeki approved it choice. The board sat down and started to get down to busies.

Political posturing

Then came the political upheaval of Polokwane and suddenly everybody was doing an about face. Suddenly, the board members the Portfolio Committee had chosen weren't good enough because the new ANC order just didn't like the fact that Mbeki had gone ahead and confirmed its appointment without checking with the ANC NEC first.

So the Portfolio Committee did an about turn and passed a motion of no confidence in the SABC board.

Which is a bit like a husband and wife trying desperately for years to start a family and when a baby was finally conceived, the husband started pushing for an abortion because he'd suddenly decided he wanted to buy a two-seater sports car instead.

Untenable

Then, of course, we have the pro and anti-Mpofu factions getting in on the act and this situation, along with an ANC hierarchy that can't seem to make its mind up about it all, has made life and the prospect of efficient governance at the SABC absolutely untenable.

Chairperson Kanyi Mkonza is an honest person trying to do the job for which she was appointed. She and her board have, in the very short and troubled time they have had, given a clear indication that they want to get the SABC running in a businesslike way. More so, I would suggest, than any of their predecessors.

Frankly, given the political infighting and posturing they haven't a hope in hell of achieving anything except ulcers and grey hair.

Credibility

But, the damage that is being caused is not only to political egos and the efficiency of the board. The real damage is to the performance and credibility of the SABC.

The news coming out of Auckland Park these days has less credibility than it did in the apartheid years. But, as they say in the infomercials, that's not all.

Programming quality is suffering as well. Mainly because with all the hoo-hah it is hardly surprising that employees from top management down to the lowest functionaries are getting more depressed and insecure by the day. Not to mention the poor folk who have to sell advertising and sponsorships - it must be very difficult to do a selling job for an organisation that is been seen to be embroiled in a fracas of a level more commonly found on the playing fields of kindergartens.

Just driving past SABC headquarters one can almost smell the decaying stench of discontent.

Mbeki won't agree

It is time for all concerned to start behaving alike adults. Either Parliament must give the present board the go-head to do what is best for the SABC and not best for political wish lists. Or, they must start all over again and appoint another board. This however, will not go down well with anyone but the ANC because any new board will be seen to be nothing more than ANC appointees and, in any event, the process will run into trouble because it will need presidential approval and, for the life of me, I cannot see Mbeki agreeing to any new appointments in place of what he chose in the first place.

And one cannot leave this situation until the elections next year. By then the damage might be far too great.

I know this sounds like pie in the sky,. but if everyone concerned from Parliament to the ordinary people of this country wanted to do what is best for SABC, they would appoint a board of broadcast specialists and businesspeople. The present chairperson is one of the first that I can remember who has any broadcast experience - her appointment was a step in the right direction and would have worked if the politicians hadn't been so selfish.