Parliament finalises candidates for SABC's interim board

© Jakub Jirsak – 123RF.com

The committee called an urgent meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss the names put forward for the five-member interim board.

MPs agreed to nominate former board member Krish Naidoo, media veterans Mathatha Tsedu and John Mattison, Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, and Khanyisile Kweyama.

Naidoo is one of the two nonexecutive directors who abruptly resigned from the doomed SABC board during a parliamentary meeting in October, saying it was dysfunctional.

As a parliamentary ad hoc committee investigated the crisis at the SABC, all board members subsequently resigned late last year, leaving the public broadcaster without a board.

The names of the interim board members will now be forwarded to the National Assembly for adoption. The board will be in place for not more than six months pending the appointment of a permanent board.

The interim board is expected to play a key role in sorting out the mess at the public broadcaster. Its first task will undoubtedly be to implement the recommendations emanating from Parliament's ad hoc committee report on the governance lapses at the SABC.

Some of the recommendations include instituting a forensic investigation into dodgy SABC deals, contracts, salary increases and bonus payments. It is also likely to look into the validity of the memorandum of incorporation, review editorial policies and ensure that competent executives, including a permanent CEO, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, are appointed.

The office of the ANC chief whip in Parliament said: "The interim board, once appointed, should restore stability by taking decisive action against those SABC executives who failed to execute their fiduciary duties, who flouted the rules and who threatened and manipulated the thousands of good people working at the SABC.

"The interim board must also ensure that a forensic investigation is conducted in order for those who are found to have collapsed the SABC to be held to account".