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Knives are being sharpened to block a broadcasting bill that would transfer powers from Parliament to the executive through Communications Minister Faith Muthambi.
The Broadcasting Amendment Bill has been slammed for reducing the SABC’s role as a public broadcaster to that of state broadcaster, setting the country back more than 21 years to the apartheid era.
Chief among an array of concerns is the clause that the president would no longer appoint nonexecutive board members on the advice of Parliament, but rather by the minister and based on recommendations of a committee that she appointed herself.
The bill was introduced to Parliament on Friday. This was despite the fact that Parliament had already risen until February. It was approved by Cabinet last month and was ostensibly introduced to streamline and stabilise the troubled broadcaster.
Its introduction to Parliament appeared to have even caught the ANC by surprise. ANC caucus spokesperson Moloto Mothapo declined comment yesterday, saying as far as the party was aware, the bill had not been tabled.
The alarm was raised by divergent groups from the DA and the South African Communist Party.
The president would be empowered to remove a board member based on recommendations of a panel that he appointed. The number of nonexecutive board members would be reduced from 12 to nine, and members may be reappointed for another three years. The president is also empowered to set up an interim board for six months.
Pippa Green, a former board member (2010-2013) who was previously head of SABC radio news, said yesterday that the bill would legalise the fact that the SABC would revert to being an “instrument of politicians rather than a service to the public”.
Stressing the vital importance of a public broadcaster, Green said the current Broadcasting Act was enacted a year before the 1994 elections because of the awareness that a free and fair public broadcaster was seen as a “most essential prerequisite for independent elections”.
There had been a “steady political encroachment” over the past 10 years. Once you have a state broadcaster in place, “real or imagined considerations override independence and creativity and an atmosphere of fear is created”.
Green advised ministers to make laws that they would like to have “even when they are not in power”.
Support Public Broadcasting (SOS) Coalition coordinator Sekoetlane Phamodi accused the minister of “ultra-politicising” the process of appointing and removing the board.
“It takes us back to the SAUK apartheid era of state broadcasting – as far back as 1992.”
The SOS has already issued legal challenges to SABC decisions taken by Muthambi since she became minister in May last year.
“We have seen a pattern of direct and egregious interference in the workings of the SABC,” he said.
Wits University broadcast researcher Kate Skinner said the bill was sneaked into Parliament “while everybody was asleep”.
“There has to be a massive pushback. The only way forward is to remove the bill entirely.”
The DA agreed. The party’s communications spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said that the bill “completely removes Parliament from the process”.
Earlier, the SACP’s Solly Mapaila said the bill would turn the public broadcaster into a “corporate” and its independence could be compromised.
Responding to a request to comment, communications portfolio committee chairperson Joyce Moloi-Moropa said in an SMS that the bill had not been formally discussed or tabled yet by her committee.
Muthambi’s spokesperson did not respond to SMS queries yesterday.
