Fourteen nominees were shortlisted by MPs on Wednesday to fill four vacancies on the SABC board left by a spate of resignations last year.

The 14 include academics Govin Reddy, also a board member of the Mail & Guardian; Mahavishnu Padayachee, the head of the school of development studies at KwaZulu-Natal University; Sadhasivan Perumal, an associate professor at the same university's school of management and a senior executive of state forestry company Safcol, and Unisa vice-chancellor David Mosoma.

Also nominated are Peter Druchen, head of DeafSA; Xoliswa Florence Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, Eskom's business support manager; Maureen Makole Manyama-Matome, Safcol's chief financial officer, and former SABC journalist Fawzia Moodley.

The remaining six are business administrator Sethe Makhesha, company director Sembia Danana, advocate Cawekazi Mahlati, media company director Lumko Mtide, Johannesburg regional government administrator Vusamuzi Mavuso and Kenneth Herold, who has an engineering background.

The candidates will be interviewed for three days next week before Parliament's communications portfolio committee presents a choice of four to the National Assembly on February 3, committee chairperson Eric Kholwane said.

He said it was hoped they would take up their positions "in the first quarter of the year".

MPs from all political parties on Wednesday described the shortlisting process as fair and democratic.

"There was give and take," Natascha Williams from the Democratic Alliance said.

Kholwane said the committee had looked for candidates who had sound financial management skills, because this was clearly a weakness at the public broadcaster.

The cash-strapped SABC was rocked by renewed instability last year when the board clashed with chairperson Ben Ngubane and now suspended CEO Solly Mokoetle over the appointment of Phil Molefe as head of news, amid allegations of political interference.

Board members David Niddrie, Barbara Masekela, Felleng Sekha and Makgatho Mello left in October. The move followed months of infighting and complaints over a failure to produce a financial strategy for the company, to ensure it could make repayments on loans secured against a government guarantee of more than R1-billion.