SABC makes or breaks communications ministers

Frankly, I would not be surprised if Dina Pule's heart is beating a little faster today and the butterflies in her stomach working at the same pace they do when multiple root canal treatment at the dentist is in the offing.

Damnable SABC

Being minister of communications would be quite a nice portfolio, were it not for that damned elusive SABC.

While her predecessor Roy Padayachie has been praised by the telecoms industry as having brought some true grit and determination to the ministry, he has, by all accounts, steered clear of the communications catastrophe that is the SABC.

It has become a tradition almost, that communications ministers hand over a poison chalice to their successors in the form of the national broadcaster. And it's no secret why.

In my opinion, getting the SABC back on track is probably one of the most career inhibiting projects any cabinet minister can tackle.

Follow the money

First of all, it would require putting together a board of directors and chairman who were all not only independent but understood the complexities of the hybrid public service/commercial broadcasting buisiness.

Ministers of communications are not allowed to do that. of course. They're actually stymied at stage one, which is the appointment of a chairman. And quite clearly a good servant of the ANC is an attribute that supersedes an understanding and knowledge of the broadcasting business when it comes to choosing chairmen.

The appointment of a board of directors by the ANC-dominated Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communication is slightly less overtly based on political, rather than business or media, skills but the end result is pretty much the same.

Dysfunctional board

Board after board, which are to all intents and purposes completely dysfunctional. Political factionalism wins the day and the poor sod who sits in the CEO's seat ends up being pushed and pulled in every direction possible.

The solution to the decades of travails that have beset out national broadcaster is actually quite simple, really. Trouble is, the solution would not be popular with the ANC.

That's what makes the SABC a chalice so poisonous that no faithful ANC-aligned minister would want to touch it with a bargepole, let alone sup from it.

The portfolio now also carries an added dose of deadly poison for the minister, and that is her relationship with those fellow cabinet colleagues who are bent on banning alcohol and fast food advertising.

Wanna fight? No!

This will so severely reduce the SABC's advertising and sponsorship income that regular massive subsidisation of the corporation will become commonplace. And with so few TV viewers bothering to pay their licence fees, the only sources of financial sustenance for the SABC will be the good old taxpayer.

Any communications minister who truly wants to try and solve the SABC's problems, once and for all, would not only be obliged to defy the wishes of her political masters in terms of board appointments but would, by necessity, have to get into extremely nasty fights with at least three of her cabinet colleagues.

I can't for the life of me imagine that happening.