‘No accountability’ at SABC

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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THE SABC’s human resources department has been criticised in a report on corporate governance at the broadcaster prepared by Deloitte & Touche for Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

Deloitte interviewed SABC board members and executive management for the report and found that there were no formal role definitions or job descriptions for employees, resulting in a lack of accountability.

No formal performance management structures and processes existed, and there were no broad criteria which all employees were expected to meet.

This led to employee frustration as staffers felt they were not being assessed on an equal basis with their peers, interviewees told Deloitte.

Deloitte said it seemed that no effectiveness assessment of the board of directors had been performed in the past year.

Although there was a formal orientation and induction programme for new directors, this did not include information on the public broadcaster’s role, or the role, processes and functioning of a board.

Deloitte recommended that regular board assessments be held and that directors be provided with information about the SABC and its role, and that all directors should receive training on corporate governance and directors’ duties.

Too many board meetings were held, mainly to deal with issues relating to the suspension of CE Dali Mpofu, directors said. As a result, there was not enough time for board members and management to focus on the SABC’s business and operations.

Members attended meetings unprepared, with agendas, minutes and meeting packs of poor quality and often delivered late.

Information provided by management contained insufficient substance to support the board’s discussions and decisions.

As a result, board members became operationally involved in the business as they could not rely on information provided by management.

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