The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) on Monday called for President Jacob Zuma to appoint the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board, as recommended to him in September by Parliament.

Outa portfolio director for special projects Dominique Msibi said Outa was concerned that Zuma was deliberately dallying on the appointment of the new board for political reasons.

“The Portfolio Committee on Communications recommended 12 candidates to Parliament after going through a list of more than 300 applicants, assessing, shortlisting and interviewing candidates. The National Assembly approved the candidates on 7 September and the list went to the President for approval but it has stalled there,” said Outa in a statement.

The Presidency said this past weekend that the delay was not an attempt to change the candidates but that there was a need for due diligence.

The new board is needed to appoint three crucial executives for SABC, the CEO, the COO and the CFO, as all three positions are currently held by acting appointees whose appointments apparently run out within days.

In July the interim board appointed Nomsa Philiso as acting group CEO, Bessie Tugwana as the acting COO and Thabile Dlamini as the acting CFO until 12 October 2017. These interim appointments followed the dismissal of COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the resignation of acting CEO James Aguma.

Outa urged Zuma to “rise above political favouritism” and appoint the new board, so that the SABC could “get back on track”.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago was not immediately available when Polity sought comment.