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In November 2010 the Minister of Communications withdrew the controversial Draft Public Service Broadcasting Bill and promised to launch a comprehensive, public broadcasting policy review process. The SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition commended the Ministry on this decision. To date the Coalition has called on the Ministry to launch the review. The Coalition is now happy to announce that the Minister has called the SOS working group to a meeting in Pretoria this Friday 2 September to discuss these issues.
The Coalition believes that the Review is both urgent and important given the deep seated problems in the communications sector both at the level of the public broadcaster and in the community media sector. The Coalition is deeply concerned for instance about the financial crisis at South Africa’s oldest community radio station, Bush radio.
The Coalition will be tabling its views on process and on content. In terms of the process the Coalition is calling for an extensive national public process where all key stakeholders voices are heard. The SABC, the community and commercial media sectors should all be utilised to ensure these issues are comprehensively aired. Further, the time period needs to be sufficient to allow for a proper consultation process. The Coalition is worried that the Ministry may want to rush this process as they have stated that they want to wrap up the review by March 2012. This will clearly not be sufficient time.

In terms of content the Coalition is aware of several processes that are currently underway in the Department that impact on the review. These include a market review of the broadcasting sector, and research on the community television sector. Further new tenders are out reviewing the corporate governance structures and Articles of Association of all state owned enterprises falling under the Department including the SABC. We will be seeking clarity as to how these processes will be included within the Review.
In terms of the content of the review the Coalition has been working intensively over the last few years to craft a number of consensus positions amongst civil society groupings on a new vision for public broadcasting. The Coalition has focused primarily on the SABC but also on the community media sector.

First, the Coalition argues that South Africa lacks a coherent vision for public broadcasting. Our public broadcaster is buffeted by both strong commercial and government pressures. Further, the Charter that sets out the SABC’s vision is scattered throughout the Broadcasting Act, 1999, making it hard to hold the SABC publically accountable. The Coalition has called for a public process to craft a new Charter for the SABC.

Second, the Coalition has argued that the legal structure of the SABC is problematic. The Coalition is a public company with the Minister as sole shareholder. This gives the Minister significant powers to intervene in terms of the SABC’s corporate plans and the appointment of the CEO, CFO and COO. SOS believes these powers are inappropriate for a public broadcaster. SOS is investigating the possible de-corporatisation of the SABC. Further, the Coalition is proposing that the SABC be transformed into a Chapter 9 institution such as the Public Protector. The independence of Chapter 9 institutions’ is safeguarded and protected by the Constitution.

Third, the Coalition has argued that there is a lack of clarity as regards the roles of the SABC’s oversight structures (including the Ministry and Department of Communications, ICASA and Parliament) and the SABC’s governance structures (including the SABC Board and management). SOS has put forward a set of draft resolutions calling for the Ministry to play a key macro policy; for Parliament, amongst a number of roles, to play a key oversight role in terms of finances and for ICASA to robustly monitor the SABC’s charter and license conditions. Further, the Coalition has called for the Board to play a strategic role and for management to implement this strategy without undue interference from the Board.

Fourth, the Coalition has called for the Ministry and Department to craft a new funding model for the SABC and for the community broadcasting sector. The Coalition has noted the SABC’s problematic funding model where approximately 80% of funding is from advertising, 18% from the license fee and 2% from government. Further the Coalition has noted the problematic division of the SABC into public and public commercial divisions which has failed in practice and has intensified the commercial character of the SABC. The Coalition has called for long term, assured, independent public funding possibly through Parliamentary appropriations particularly for public programming such as dramas, documentaries, children’s and educational programming. We have called for the abolishing of the public and public commercial divisions and for all channels to be public channels.
We have called on the Department to conduct an economic modelling exercise to ascertain the costs of the SABC fulfilling its public mandate in the new digital, multi-channel environment. This exercise should then be subject to public debate. Further, SOS has called for legislated transparent accounting practices and for the majority of SABC funds to be spent on programming rather than the SABC’s top-heavy bureaucracy.

Fifth, the Coalition has noted the SABC’s culture of secrecy and lack of accountability to its audiences and citizens more broadly. SOS has proposed a number of accountability mechanisms including national and provincial stakeholder committees.

The SOS Coalition represents a number of trade unions including COSATU, COSATU affiliates CWU and CWUSA, FEDUSA, BEMAWU and MWASA; independent film and TV production sector organisations including the South African Screen Federation (SASFED); and a host of NGOs and CBOs including the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-SA); as well as a number of academics and freedom of expression activists.