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Minister Nyanda exceeds his authority as a cabinet minister by intervening in SABC Board decisions
Cabinet ministers have specifically defined constitutional roles limiting authority
DA calls on President Zuma to instruct Minister Nyanda to adhere to his defined role

The Minister of Communications, Siphiwe Nyanda, has once again exceeded his authority as a minister and demonstrated a lack of concern for the powers prescribed to him as a member of the executive by the constitution. The request by Minister Nyanda to the board of South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) that they review the appointment of Robin Nicholson as Acting GCEO and appoint another executive to lead the public broadcaster is an example of the Minister's stubborn attempts to impose himself in matters that are not within his mandate as a Cabinet Minister. Instead of intervening with board decisions, Minister Nyanda should be concerning himself with putting his department in order, considering that his own acting Director General has described the DoC as a ‘sinking ship' and the fact that the Department recently received a qualified audit for the last financial year.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) shall today be writing to President Zuma requesting that he instruct Minister Nyanda, a member of his Cabinet, not to exceed his authority as per the Constitution. A member of his executive is acting beyond his powers and it is the President's duty to ensure that this does not continue.

Further, the DA intends asking the Minister directly whether he is aware of his constitutional mandate and if so, why he insists on constantly breaching it. We have already written to the chairperson of the portfolio committee requesting that the Minister appear - we shall be adding these questions to the already long list of concerns we intend on discussing and debating with the Minister.

The Broadcasting Act explicitly provides that the affairs of the SABC are to be administered by the board in conjunction with an executive committee and not the Minister of Communications, whose role is minimally limited to consultation of financial matters of the public broadcaster. The SABC board is not accountable to the Minister with regards to such decisions, but Parliament. The Portfolio Committee on Communications has already indicated that the board would be called before Parliament again to account for issues at the SABC. This is where the matter should be, and will be dealt with.

The DA has repeatedly raised concerns about the Minister and ANC administration's apparent desire to control the public broadcaster. In our submission on the Public Service Broadcasting Bill last year, we noted that should the Bill be made law it would bestow on the Minister powers not dissimilar to the President and the Minister of Education under the Broadcasting Act 73 of 1976. In no uncertain terms, should the Minister, as a political appointee be allowed to involve himself in the functioning of the public broadcaster as this will severely affect the constitutional principle requiring broadcasting to be independent from political control and taint the image of ‘public broadcasting'. Public broadcasting must at all times be free from state-control and only exist to speak to all South Africans regardless of political affiliation, race or class.

The DA nevertheless welcomes the Minister's decision to hold a meeting with the SABC board discuss the contents of the letter sent to the Minister by the Minister of Finance, raising concerns that the SABC will not meet the obligations attached to the R1.4-billion guarantee allocated by National Treasury last year. He is correct to speak of his concerns with regard to financial matters of the SABC, as the Act provides that the indeed allows the Minister to minimally involved in such issues. It does not allow for his involvement in any other matters.

The DA calls on the Minister to instead concern himself with his own mandate and with those functions that are within the remit of his power. The DA calls on the President Zuma to ensure that members of his Cabinet do not exceed the limits of their political authority.