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Beginning tomorrow, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will be participating in the interviews for the selection of board members for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). The DA will work towards ensuring that those selected have the skills required to steer the public broadcaster towards good governance, financial prudence and providing quality programming to viewers. In this regard, we shall strongly oppose the selection to the board of any individuals chosen solely on the basis of any party-political allegiance.

The public broadcaster has been in a state of disarray for several years, symptoms of both financial and administrative mismanagement. Indeed, it currently owes the state over R1 billion in bail-outs despite being optimally placed in the broadcasting market, maintaining dominant positions on both television and radio. Sadly, successive administrations have treated the SABC as more of a party-political broadcaster than a public one, with political infighting tearing the organisation apart, leaving staff demotivated and the public it is supposed to serve with inferior programming. A full complement of the board, selected on merit, can begin to address these serious problems and place the SABC back in the hands of the public.

The selection of candidates to both executive and non-executive positions at the SABC on the basis of party-political allegiance, and not on requisite skills or experience, is one of the main reasons that the SABC has found itself in crisis in the past. The DA will therefore adhere to the letter of the guiding principles of the SABC, which require those selected to sit on the board to be persons committed to fairness, freedom of expression, the right of the public to be informed, and openness and accountability, and, as required by the Broadcasting Act:

“…are suited to serve on the Board by virtue of their qualifications, expertise, and experience in the fields of broadcasting policy and technology, broadcasting regulation, media law, frequency planning, business practice and finance, marketing, journalism, entertainment and education, social and labour issues.”

We look forward to interviewing the candidates and to rigorous debate with the other members of the Portfolio Committee on Communications in ensuring that the right people are selected to govern the public broadcaster.