Three major controversial deals the SABC entered into hang in the balance as members of Parliament’s ad hoc committee looking into the issues at the public broadcaster prepare to table their final report in the National Assembly next week.
Members of the ad hoc committee on Thursday continued to deliberate on the report and observations emanating from various witness testimony and written submissions.
The committee is set to adopt its final report, including recommendations, on Friday.
What is clear so far is that MPs across the political spectrum want the SABC deals with Multichoice, ANN7 — the Gupta-owned TV station — and Vision View probed further and possibly invalidated.
The controversial R533m deal with Multichoice, which was signed in 2013, gave the private broadcaster access to the SABC’s entire archive. Under the deal, the SABC agreed to supply two new channels to Multichoice: a 24-hour news channel and an entertainment channel called SABC Encore.
A condition of the deal was that the SABC support Multichoice’s proposal to have set-top boxes, meant to be introduced as part of the government’s digital migration programme, encryption-free.
Free-to-air service provider eSat TV wants set-top boxes encoded to fight Multichoice’s monopoly on pay television.
Sipho Masinga, a former SABC IT executive, told the inquiry in December that the public broadcaster supported encryption along with the government, but that suddenly changed.
The contract has been criticised by industry players and civil society organisations, who have argued that the deal is anticompetitive. It emerged late last year that after the deal was finalised, former SABC executive Hlaudi Motsoeneng allegedly pocketed a R33m bonus, R10m of which he has already been paid. Some MPs have described the deal as suspicious and very likely, unlawful.
Another SABC deal facing scrutiny involves ANN7/TNA. MPs have questioned why the public broadcaster, which continues to face financial difficulties, entered into a deal with a rival. In a written submission which MPs discussed this week, former SABC acting CEO Phil Molefe revealed that the public broadcaster paid up to R1m for an episode of the TNA/Morning Live breakfast show.
In December, the committee heard from former contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko that the public broadcaster carried the costs of the production of the breakfast shows while all revenue went to TNA. At the time, Mvoko said the SABC was essentially using its own money and resources to build up ANN7.
MPs have also flagged the controversial deal that the SABC entered into with Vision View, for the construction of a multipurpose set and studio including all technological components, to service SABC Sport and the news division, at an amount of about R40m. The deal, again pushed by Motsoeneng, raised concern among some senior SABC executives and National Treasury after reports emerged that it was signed without following proper procurement procedures.
Motsoeneng, who has complained about not being called in to testify, has been a common theme during the inquiry, and has largely been blamed for the successive collapse of SABC boards.
MPs were emphatic on Thursday that the report should highlight that the SABC board had failed in its fiduciary duties, and so too had Communications Minister Faith Muthambi as the accounting authority.
Also at issue during the committee’s deliberations over the last two days, was the illegal amendments made by Muthambi to SABC memorandum of incorporation (MOI), which gave her and Motsoeneng total control of the public broadcaster.
Parliament researchers said the changes she made were never submitted to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (Cipro), and thus the SABC acted illegally when it made executive appointments and removed board members.
The amendment of the MOI has been seen as one of the catalysts in the demise of the SABC board and the complete collapse of good governance.
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