Letter to the President: SOS Urges the President to Appointment Recommended SABC Board Candidates About Whom No Objections Have Been Raised

The SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS) is a non-profit, civil society coalition that represents non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), community media, independent film and TV production sector organisations, academics, freedom of expression activists and concerned individuals. It advocates for the presence of robust public service media dedicated to broadcasting quality, diverse and citizen-orientated content to deepen South Africa’s constitutional values and principles.

Member organisations of SOS include: Campaign for Free Expression (CFE), Cape Town TV (CTV), Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Independent Producers Organisation (IPO), Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ), Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), Right to Know (R2K), South African Screen Federation (SASFED) and Workers World Media Productions (WWMP).

SOS refers to its previous correspondence dated 9 December 2022, in which SOS raised pressing concerns about three (3) of the twelve (12) candidates that had been recommended to you by the National Assembly for appointment to the SABC Board, namely, Mr Dinkwanyane Kgalema Mohuba; Ms. Nomvuyiso Batyi; and Mr Mpho Tsedu. Further we are aware that at least one SOS member has written separately to you on these issues.

SOS is alarmed to see the Presidential spokesperson relying on “concerns raised” to avoid appointing the rest of the nine (9) recommended candidates who have already been subject to
security vetting (as you must have been advised) and against whom no concerns have been raised as far as we are aware.

SOS now demands, on behalf of the public of South Africa, that you fulfil your peremptory appointment obligations required of you in terms of section 13(1) of the Broadcasting Act, 1999 (the Broadcasting Act) to appoint the remaining nine (9) board members such that the SABC Board has a fully quorate number of non-executive board members (our emphasis) enabling it to deal with all matters that require Board approval, including decisions that relate to executive management matters and in which said executive board members would be precluded from participating.

SOS therefore expects the non-controversial (about whom no objections have been raised), National Assembly-recommended, (and State Security-Agency-vetted) appointments to be made by yourself by close of business on 17 February 2023.

It goes without saying that:

• your failure to make such appointments for nearly two months since the recommendations were made to you;
• leaving the SABC without a Board at a time of great financial instability for the organisation given, inter alia, the proposed Analogue Switch off of 68% of its television audience as a result of the proposed termination of analogue television signals in the remaining four provinces; and
• your implicit failure to support the recommendations of the Zondo Commission which expressly highlighted that “depoliticising is of paramount importance in the renewal, rehabilitation and strengthening of governance systems”1 by failing to ensure that the most basic governance system of the SABC, the Board, is even appointed;

all constitute, and/or result from, a dereliction of your statutory duty set out in section 13(1) of the Broadcasting Act to appoint non-controversial, recommended SABC Board candidates and your constitutional powers and functions in terms of s84(2)(e) of the Constitution, Act 103 of 1996.

All SOS’s rights are reserved.