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The great SABC power grab

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Mondli Makhanya
Mondli Makhanya

There is a hilarious short movie coming to a phone near you – that’s if it hasn’t reached you already. If it hasn’t, you should change your friends because they are either not sharing with you or are just getting the good stuff for themselves.

The movie in question is a 10-second clip featuring the infamous Hlaudi Motsoeneng proclaiming to the world that he is an intellectual.

Speaking into a camera, the SABC’s chief operating officer bellows that he is “an intellekshual leksha”. He is apparently explaining why a top university had asked him to deliver a lecture. He roars that he is not “acamedian but an intelekshual, BORRRN intellekshual”.

This wonderful Hlaudism has generated much social media traffic and got great laughs. As the nation enjoys yet another gem and scratches the collective about how this man got to run Africa’s biggest and most sophisticated broadcaster, he is preparing for a disciplinary hearing that could end his long-running con job.

The ANC’s communications subcommittee head, Jackson Mthembu, has already said the SABC should not be led by “nincompoops” and “mafikizolos”.

But whether Motsoeneng's departure will necessarily spell the liberation of the SABC from nincompoops and mafikizolos is still very much up in the air. The destruction that he and his godmother, Faith Muthambi, wrought on the SABC is deep and extensive.

By far the most destructive act of their era was the reversal of the SABC from public broadcaster to a state broadcaster. The creation of a public broadcaster that would no longer serve the interests of some, but of the nation, was a major achievement of the democratic era.

The Broadcasting Act gave legislative weight to the SABC’s independence when it mandated it to deliver “news and public affairs programming that meets the highest standards of journalism, as well as fair and unbiased coverage, impartiality, balance and independence from government, commercial and other interests”.

This was always going to be a tricky act as the SABC board is selected by the National Assembly and so is dominated by people who have the sanction of the majority party. Over the years, the ANC has used (or abused) this power by packing it with acolytes who, in turn, deploy cadres in executive positions who, in turn, ensure that the corporation does “the right thing”.

But South Africa being the country it is, there were other layers of protection for the SABC. One was the determination by many inside and outside the corporation to ensure it fulfilled its public service mandate and become the great broadcaster it could be. Those inside the corporation fought hard to protect their journalistic turf, while those outside fought in the public and legal space. Another layer was the ANC’s internal wars, which saw to it that the party did not always act as one.

At times, these led various boards to collapse from dysfunction and executives to fall by the wayside. The resultant instability has been untidy, but it has forestalled the emergence of an unassailable propaganda machine.

Then came Muthambi and Motsoeneng.

Immediately after violating governance and cementing her godson’s position at the SABC, Muthambi summarily took power away from the parliamentary oversight process and placed it in her hands. In one of the most brazen power grabs in democratic South Africa, she replaced the Articles of Association with her own Memorandum of Incorporation.

Ignoring legal advice obtained by Parliament that the Broadcasting Act preceded all competing legislation when it came to SABC matters, she used the Companies Act to perform this grab.

She acquired the power to remove board members without Parliament’s involvement. She also got the power to appoint the chief executive, chief financial officer and chief operating officer without advertising the posts and without the say-so of the board. She now also has the power to discipline and remove these executives without the involvement of the board. From her ministerial perch, she can bypass the board and appoint people to act in these executive positions. She can also change the SABC’s governance codes and rules willy-nilly after visiting a palm reader.

That is a lot of power in the hands of one minister, especially over an institution as important to our democracy as the SABC.

Earlier this year, attempts by a cross-section of parties, including the ANC, on Parliament’s communications portfolio committee to stop Muthambi was crushed by the ANC top dogs. ANC parliamentarian and committee chairperson Joyce Moloi-Moropa, who led a principled stand against the grab could soon be out of Parliament after ill-treatment by those protecting the power grabber.

The reality is that sooner or later, Motsoeneng will go. Muthambi will follow at some point. They will leave us with an apartheid-era structural relationship between the state and the SABC.

We are back in the days of PW Botha and Alwyn Schlebusch. Chances are that whoever follows Muthambi will not want to tinker with this perfect arrangement. So it’s best for society to deal with it before the paint dries on it.

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