Tough job for new SABC chair

Only time will tell, however, whether the quiet and charming Kanyi Mkonza has got what it takes to pick up the reins and haul them in strongly enough to control the wild ride the SABC is taking towards the abyss that is a complete lack of credibility.

She is one of the few board members who actually has any broadcast media experience and she not only understands broadcasting, but also the important role advertising and sponsorship revenue plays in the sustainability of a broadcaster.

First few years

As chair of the Media Development & Diversity Agency (MDDA) for the past five years, Mkonza had the exceptionally difficult task of guiding not only a new organisation but a statutory body to boot, through its formative years.

Clearly she did a good job because Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, was the man who recommended her appointment to the MDDA chair and also recommended to President Mbeki her appointment to the SABC board.

Add to that the fact that the MDDA's commercial media partners - all of South Africa's broadcast and newspaper groups, have been happy with her performance. She has also had support for her appointment from the likes of Dene Smuts, the DA 's very astute representative on the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications - the body that regularly oversees the goings on of entities such as MDDA and SABC.

Dene Smuts

Smuts knows her media as well as anyone else in this country and as she told the Mail & Guardian last week, Mkonza had made a favourable impression on her.

Mkonza' big test, however, will, be handling the politics surrounding the SABC. The MDDA was pretty much completely free of political interference and the board members largely got on very well with each other.

But, SABC is a very different kettle of fish. And it's not necessarily only the outside politics she needs to worry about but also the Machiavellian internal politics of the SABC. Both from the point of view of a CEO and news bosses who seem to fall over themselves trying to ingratiate themselves with Government and the top echelons of the ANC and also because a huge component of the old apartheid-era SABC exists at virtually every level of management at channel level.

There are those who might believe Mkonza has been handed a poison chalice and like every one of her predecessors she will be hamstrung by internal and external politicking and divisions within the SABC board itself.

But, underneath her modest, unassuming exterior, she can be a tough lady when she wants to be. She is a very good listener and certainly on the MDDA board she gave everyone an opportunity to put their point of view forward.

Credibility problem

She is also a realist and has no time at all for ducking and diving and covering things up.
Which seems to be something she intends carrying on with at the SABC having already openly admitted that one of her first big tasks is to get the board to focus on facing the SABC's lack of credibility. She appears intent on going straight to the nub of what went wrong and then to look at how to fix it.

It will be no means an easy ride for Mkonza and her first big challenge will be stamping her authority on her board and getting the CEO and head of news to come down from cloud nine and back into the real world.

Something that might well work in favour now is the post-Polokwane split between the Mbeki and Zuma factions. Where her predecessors openly had to worry about pressure from one source, with that pressure now coming from two very different sides, Mkonza can afford not to take political sides and have this work in her favour. For the first time probably, it will be an advantage for an SABC board chair to be seen to be politically neutral.

Whether or not she is the right person for the job, only time will tell. Chairing the SABC board means sitting in a very hot seat and she probably has a better chance than any of the other members of the board to withstand the heat.