SOS welcomes parliament intervention

The immediate manifestations of this are power battles over the performance of the GCEO, Solly Mokoetle, who has ignored and overturned board decisions, supported in this by the chair of the SABC, Dr Ben Ngubane, who appears disinterested in the opinion of the majority of the Board.

Dr Ngubane does not appear to believe that he needs the approval of his board on any matter, or indeed that their strong disapproval should sway his unilateral decisions. Board members have declared a "vote of no confidence" in the chair. Since May 2010, board meetings have been constantly cancelled leading to a situation where no real interrogation and action is being taken against the chair. Further, no real oversight has been taken over key governance and financial issues for a number of months.

SOS notes that there was a very active and transparent public nomination process for the new board, which in general provided a competent set of board members with the requisite integrity and skills to hold the confidence of organised elements of civil society including the SOS. However, over the last months, effective oversight and leadership of the SABC has suffered deeply due to stand-off between the chair of the board and CEO and the rest of the board members. This has deepened the political, economic and governance crises the SABC has faced over a number of years.

Board situation serious

After eight months in office, the board has not been able to draft a critical turn-around strategy for the corporation. In addition the lack of board meetings have meant none of the policy issues addressed to the SABC by the independent production sector - or the unions - have been addressed

SOS believes that the prospect of the resignation of numerous members of the board, that in general have the confidence of the public, will be devastating for the future of the public broadcaster.

The SABC can only be stabilised and begin to thrive if the foundational governance principles are adhered to. At present, the institution is being torn apart for what can only be described as dubious reasons. SOS believes strongly that the control of the SABC has to be in the hands of the board that was put in place by a public and democratic process. Without this, SOS believes, the SABC is no longer accountable to the public.

Without a functioning board, the public will continue to see the unabated strategy of repeats on their screens, the independent production sector will continue to shrink alongside SABC's income and the morale of staff will continue to drop, leading to the loss of talent in and outside the corporation. It will continue to lose audience share in an increasingly competitive environment.

Parliamentary investigation

SOS thus welcomes parliament's decision to exercise its oversight role over the corporation and to investigate the controversy around the appointment of the head of news, progress (or lack thereof) related to the drafting of its turnaround strategy and the overall functionality of the board. Further SOS expects, in light of the overwhelming evidence that exists of corporate governance breaches at the corporation that Parliament, as the "appointing body", in line with the amended Broadcasting Act, will take action in terms of the chair of the board.

SOS represents a number of trade unions; independent producer organisations; a host of NGOs and CBOs and a number of academics and freedom of expression activists.