IT WAS clear from the parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of the public broadcaster this week that the dysfunctional SABC is in ICU, and specialists are consulting about switching off the life support system.
In a candid assessment, former SABC executive, Govin Reddy in 2011 described the organisation as “a patient with multiple organ failure. There is no point fixing kidneys when the lungs have also gone. You have to get everything right, but you must start somewhere. You have to get the heart pumping, before everything else. The key to a turnaround at the SABC is to have the right people.”
The sad, sorry SABC saga reveals how a credible public broadcaster with talented managers, producers and journalists is reduced to a laughing stock.
Except for some of the micro data and horrific cases of abuse of power, and abdication of authority, much of what has emerged from the parliamentary inquiry in the affairs of the SABC has been in the public domain for at least three years.
Of course, the Guptas never seem to be too far away from the action. Journalist Vuyo Mvoko submitted to the inquiry: “What the SABC has not informed you about, is that they have allowed SABC money to be used to build a rival channel, ANN7… Morning Live resources get diverted to pay for the production costs of those TNA breakfasts… From the millions they make on sponsorship, the tables they sell at those breakfasts, they do not take any of that to the SABC.”
ANC MP Patrick Chauke said this was a “serious threat not only to democracy, but the revolution. The power lies with TNA. That’s where the power is.” Former SABC staffer Nikiwe Bikitsha tweeted “the SABC has become a Ponzi scheme to fund ANN7”.
The critical question is why does it take so long to act? As eloquently expressed by SAfm current affairs producer Krivani Pillay: “Parliament let us down, the board let us down, the minister let us down, our acting group chief executive at the time, Jimi Matthews, let us down. All these people sold out journalists and sold out journalism.”
The downslide, political interference, and reign of fear and terror at the SABC started with the appointment of Snuki Zikala as the head of news in 2004, blacklisting of some political analysts, which coincided with the leadership battles within the ANC, and Mbeki’s ambitions for a third term at the helm of the ANC.
The chief executive of the SABC, Dali Mpofu, was forced to appoint an internal commission of enquiry on June 29, 2006, to investigate the allegations of the “blacklist”. The commission concluded that there was indeed a “blacklist” of analysts whom the SABC were warned not to consult.
It also found that “Zikalala appears to intervene at a micro-level inappropriate to his level of management”. The commission expressed concern about “an atmosphere of fear and distrust which is scarcely conducive to the kind of open and rational debate expected with a public broadcaster”, which also undermined editorial independence. Predictably, no action was taken against Snuki Zikala.
Since then, the SABC has been sliding down the steep slope of mediocrity and loss of public credibility, lurching from one crisis to another, with a revolving door entry and exit of senior executives (including Peter Matlare, Jimi Matthews and Solly Mokoetle), and an equally lacklustre board of political appointees.
The stage was set for the entry of one Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who promoted sunshine journalism; reduced talented SABC journalists to the level of morons; anointed himself with extraordinary powers, including making the SABC board subservient to him (in collusion with Communications Minister Faith Muthambi); awarded himself extraordinary salary increases; and lied about his matric qualification.
On June 27, Matthews resigned as acting chief executive of the SABC, and in a Damascas-like conversion, confessed: “For many months I have compromised the values I hold dear under the mistaken belief that I could be more effective inside the SABC than outside‚ passing comment from the side-lines.
“In the process the prevailing‚ corrosive atmosphere has impacted negatively on my moral judgement and has made me complicit in many decisions which I am not proud of. What is happening at the SABC is wrong, and I can no longer be part of it.”
In July this year a group of former SABC Board members and executives wrote to President Jacob Zuma, Muthambi and board chairman Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe, expressing concern: “The enforcement of news censorship and the summary dismissal of journalists who objected to such an instruction is a gross violation of those principles.
“Such events, together with distortions in the balance of news reporting that have been evident to us for some time, have reached a point that amounts to an abandonment by the SABC of its mandate to be a fair and honest reflector of events in our society.”
The various “allegations relating to various corporate governance failures on the part of the SABC management and the SABC board, financial mismanagement… and undue interference by the minister and department of communications” were investigated by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, and the findings released in a report title “When Governance and Ethics Fail” in February 2014.
Madonsela’s findings “substantiated… the allegation that Mr Motsoeneng was appointed to several posts at the SABC despite having no qualifications as required for such posts, including a matric certificate” which “constitutes improper conduct and maladministration”.
Madonsela “found it rather discouraging that the current SABC board appears to have blindly sprung to Mr Motsoeneng’s defence on matters that precede it and which, in (her) considered view, require a board that is serious about ethical governance to raise questions with him”.
“In fact at times the board submission appeared more defensive on his behalf than himself.”
She recommended that disciplinary action be taken against Motsoeneng for lying about his matric credentials, awarding himself irregular salary increases (which should be recovered), and abusing his power and authority.
Motsoeneng resorted to court action to try to defy the public protector’s findings, but was subsequently suspended and subjected to a farcical internal disciplinary hearing that cleared him of any wrongdoing.
On Monday, the Western Cape High Court ruled the disciplinary process against Motsoeneng was “wholly inadequate”, and must start anew, and his appointment as group executive, corporate affairs, was “irrational and unlawful”.
The way forward is very simple – appoint a new SABC board on merit, regardless of ideological or political affiliation. One of the defining characteristics of the ANC government since 1994 is the immunity that senior executives in public institutions and state-owned enterprises enjoy for abusing power and authority, which often has serious financial and reputational consequences.
l Maharaj is a geography professor at UKZN. He writes in his personal capacity.