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Before we get too excited about the execution of the SABC board and the imminent demise of Hlaudi Motsoeneng, let us pause and reflect on how we got here in the first place.
Yesterday’s events in Parliament didn’t just make for gripping television. They were also a rare ray of light for South Africans who were giving up on the idea that principles, values and common sense counted for anything.
It was pleasing to see leadership coming from the ANC, which normally opposes the opposition for the sake of opposing the opposition.
It was also encouraging to see unity among political parties on an issue that all South Africans should be concerned about – the wanton destruction of the precious asset called the SABC.
Leading the charge on the day on which the ANC seemed to have found a moral and fiduciary compass was former Ekurhuleni mayor and newly arrived member of Parliament Mondli Gungubele (emphasis on the first name).
Delivering the view of the ANC, this particular Mondli said something that would have saved his party and the country a great deal of pain if it had adopted this stance in the past few years.
“My understanding is that you were supposed to implement and not review the Public Protector’s findings ... If you had a problem with the Public Protector’s findings, you should have gone to court for a legal review. You didn’t do that,” Gungubele told the hapless SABC board members.
Mbete, Nhleko, Nxesi, Motshekga, Frolic: were you listening?
By the end of the day a unanimous decision had been taken to move towards the dissolution of the board. An interim board will most likely be appointed while Parliament undertakes the process of selecting a new one.
Now to why we should not be uncorking those bottles of bubbly: As with previous boards, which were either ineffectual or fell apart before their terms ended, the current board was put in place after a process dominated by a self-interested ANC.
Instead of seeking the strongest individuals with the right mixture of skills and diversity, the majority party always made sure the boards were endowed with a good dose of mediocrity.
ANC nominees to the board ranged from outstanding people who could waltz on to any corporate board to utterly useless sycophants who would be willing to dance to politicians’ tunes.
These sycophants cared not a jot for the SABC’s mandate, its staff, its financial viability or its reputation in the eyes of the public.
They were simply there as conveyor belts of political interests and to make sure that the broadcaster did not step out of line.
Some were there for more nefarious reasons on behalf of powerful sponsors who wanted to eat from the SABC.
Highly capable board members – some of them ANC loyalists – who had the interests of the SABC at heart could not stomach this constant need to wage battles on obvious issues.
Out of respect for their own reputations, and sensing the futility of their struggles, they would pack their bags and go.
The bad guys would thus win, over and over. Instability would reign at board level, seep down into operations and eventually become the norm.
When the ANC majority pushed through the current board it was after having gone through the same exercise several times and seeing the results of its narrow thinking.
What was worse was that the previous board had collapsed in 2013 due to terrible infighting. At the centre of this infighting was the status of a certain Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
The previous board had virtually fallen apart in 2011 after similar infighting, necessitating a few new members be appointed to make it quorate.
In 2015 the current board was also near a collapse after more infighting around Motsoeneng, leading to departures and forced resignations.
What is noteworthy though is that the current board was initially chaired by Ellen Tshabalala, who was said to have been given the job because she had similar tastes and likes to SAA’s Dudu Myeni.
It will be remembered that Tshabalala’s tenure ended when her tertiary qualifications went missing after a gang of tokoloshe burglars broke into her house and the Unisa IT system. After this unfortunate incident, her equally ineffectual deputy, Obert Maguvhe, moved into the main chair.
I know that all of this chopping and changing is very confusing and probably needs a timeline, graphics and arrows to explain.
How a country so rich with leadership talent could end up with these two people in the driving seat is something that can only be explained by the same governing party that will once more be the determinant of the composition of the interim board and new permanent structure.
If the ANC’s performance on this Hlaudi matter – from the national executive committee decision to the parliamentary grilling – is anything to go by then we are in for a new era in the life of the SABC.
If it was genuinely about the good of the public broadcaster and not just about a demented Motsoeneng, then the optimists among us can hope again.
But something tells me it is the pessimists among us who will be proved correct. When the board nomination process begins, self-interest will once more trump the necessity for a strong team to exercise oversight over a broadcaster that should be right up there among the best in the world.
For the optimists a small saving grace may just be the fact that there is no longer a single ANC voice and no longer one single ANC interest.
This may just give us the best and most stable board in a long time. It is up to the ANC to prove the pessimists wrong.
