SABC bill
The African National Congress (ANC) yesterday motivated and adopted a revised version of its SABC bill which made no provision for due process before board members were removed.
Opposition MPs on Parliament’s communications committee were horrified by the apparent unfairness of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, saying it opened the way for a purge of the existing SABC board. This is likely to take place as soon as the bill becomes law, though ANC chief whip Khotso Khumalo refused to give details of the ANC’s plans.
Democratic Alliance (DA) communications spokeswoman Dene Smuts said she would ask the DA to consider petitioning President Thabo Mbeki to refuse to sign the bill into law on the grounds that it would result in executive powers being usurped by Parliament.
In terms of the adopted bill, a simple finding in favour of removal of board members by a parliamentary committee and its endorsement by the National Assembly would be sufficient to get rid of them on grounds of misconduct or inability to perform their functions efficiently, among other reasons.
The entire board would be dissolved if the committee and the assembly found it had failed to discharge its duties. The bill does not enjoin the committee to conduct an inquiry before reaching its findings and obliges Mbeki to carry out the assembly’s resolutions.
Smuts said the bill failed to establish legal tests for institutional independence such as security of tenure. “A proposal like this is a purge for political purposes. The dissolution of an entire sitting board is intimidatory, offensive and destructive of the concept of security of tenure,” she said.
Inkatha Freedom Party communications spokeswoman Suzanne Vos found it “totally unacceptable” that the whole SABC board could be dissolved after a simple finding by a group of politicians. “Will people of standing in South African society offer themselves up on a platter to be treated in this way?” Vos said.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder saw the bill as “a transparent step” by the ANC to obtain permanent political control over the public broadcaster.
The ANC denied accusations of a purge, saying it was merely rectifying a defect in the Broadcasting Act regarding the removal of board members. Khumalo said a committee finding was the same as a due inquiry.
The adopted bill gives a new role to National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete in the exercise by the president of his powers in respect of the act. The president will be obliged to consult the speaker on the appointment of board members, the chairman and deputy chairman, as well as on their removal.
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