The IFP Spokesperson on Communications, Ms Liezl van der Merwe, MP issued this statement; “There can be no doubt that the ongoing process of the politicization of the public broadcaster lies at the very heart of the SABC’s protracted crisis.
The latest SABC scandal playing itself out in the public arena – the Chief Operating Officer crisis, the new rift in the Board coupled with allegations that Communications Minister Dina Pule has motivated for the re-instatement of disgraced COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng has only served to bolster the SABC’s nickname “Faulty Towers” by reaffirmin that it has not managed to rid itself of the never-ending cycle of incompetence and mismanagement at the highest levels.
This is only the latest public example of the malaise at the SABC. Despite the removal of the entire Board a few years ago, sadly, new Board members have not been able to stem the crisis.
The fact that the Minister Pule is allegedly interfering in the Motsoeneng matter again demonstrates the SABC’s lack of independence. Moreover, media reports today that has revealed that an attorney tasked to investigate corruption at the SABC had been disbarred, is another cause for concern.
As South Africans we are required by law to pay TV licences and we therefore have the right to challenge and question the SABC. Why should South Africans be required to pay a public broadcaster that is a national embarrassment, is run like a spaza shop, stranded in a sea of incompetence, while the ship is sinking?
The IFP will lend its support to the call made by lobby group SOS who have recommended in the past that the SABC become a chapter 9 institution to protect its independence. This will ensure that the SABC becomes independent of government, subject only to the Constitution and the law, and beholden only to Parliament.
It is clear that the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee of Communications, Hon Eric Kholwane, must now convene an emergency special hearing into the ongoing SABC crisis.
Without decisive action the SABC will be beyond redemption and South Africans will no longer believe that it is still “the right thing to do” to pay for TV licences.
When the IFP took to the streets last year to march against the SABC our message was clear – South Africans deserve a vibrant, functioning public broadcaster, not a state broadcaster, that serves the need of all South Africans.”
