President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended his six-month delay in appointing a new SABC board, saying parliament’s recommendation of three additional candidates had placed him in an invidious position of acting unlawfully had he upheld its recommendations.
On Tuesday, the president avoided potentially lengthy litigation when he appointed the 12-member board that will be headed by former National Youth Development Agency CEO Khathutshelo Ramukumba.
The Broadcasting Act permits the president to appoint 12 people to the board, while the National Assembly had submitted 15 names. Appointing any additional members would’ve been “completely unlawful,” presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.
Nomvuyiso Batyi, a former councillor with the Independent Communications Authority of SA, was appointed deputy chair.
The other members of the board are Renee Horne, Tseliso Thipanyane, Phathiswa Magopeni, Aifheli Makhwanya, Magdalene Moonsamy, Rearabetsoe Motaung, David Maimela, Dinkwanyane Mohuba, Mpho Tsedu and Palesa Kadi.
“The SABC is a vital institution of our constitutional democracy. I trust the newly appointed board members will work hard at ensuring that SA continues to benefit from a stable, independent and effective national public broadcaster,” Ramaphosa said on Tuesday.
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) had accused the president of failing to execute his constitutional obligation to appoint new members after the previous board’s term ended in October 2022.
The independent organisation approached the Constitutional Court in February seeking to compel Ramaphosa to appoint a new SABC board. It argued that the delay meant that the public broadcaster’s effective operation was being hindered.
“The National Assembly’s decision has presented the president with a difficult situation in that the advice it purports to give the president on who to appoint may be unlawful and certainly is unclear,” Ramaphosa said in responding papers.
“While he is acutely aware of the urgent need to appoint the SABC board he is also aware of the dire consequences to the SABC were he to do so on an unlawful basis. The president took legal advice, considered his position, and has acted as best he believed he should in order to uphold his constitutional duties. His conduct has been lawful,” Ramaphosa's court papers add.
The new board has its work cut out. The public broadcaster has been mired in governance and financial crises that took it to the brink of collapse. It reported a net loss of R201m for the 2021/22 financial year ended March 31. That’s an improvement on the R530m loss in the preceding year, and it expects to break even in 2022/23 financial year.
“The board has a massive mountain to climb, with debts increasing exponentially, and the contracts of the CEO, COO and CFO due to expire in just over a month,” said Dianne Kohler Barnard, the DA’s shadow minister of communications.
“Parliament voted and agreed unanimously to the list of candidates on December 6 2022, and the president continued to delay the process for a further 133 days without any legal entitlement to do so,” she added.
“It is because of this delay that he currently finds himself front and centre of a Constitutional Court application by civil society for failing to perform his Constitutional duties.”
Update: April 18 2023
The story contains new information
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