Parliament – Members of Parliament’s ad hoc committee conducting an inquiry into the embattled South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will go ahead and meet on Tuesday, committee chairman Vincent Smith said on Monday evening.
This despite an interdict filed by the lone board member of the public broadcaster, Obert Maguvhe, who has refused to resign despite all of his board colleagues doing so over the past few weeks.
Maguvhe, who is the board chairman, has filed an urgent interdict in the high court in Cape Town to stop the inquiry in its tracks.
Smith said Tuesday’s meeting will only discuss logistics. The calling of witnesses which was meant to start after lunchtime has however been cancelled for now, along with Wednesday and Friday’s proceedings.
“Tomorrow [Tuesday] we have a meeting at 09h00 to bring the rest of the members of the committee up to speed on what we’ve been doing behind the scenes in terms of lining up witnesses and so on,” said Smith told African News Agency (ANA).
“The action inquiry was scheduled to start at 14h00, but we’ve put that on hold to await the outcome of the court and hopefully this will be disposed of before Monday and if that’s the case, we will start on Monday and try and make up for lost time.”
Smith said Maguvhe was the lone applicants and has cited National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, all members of the ad hoc committee, and the secretary to Parliament Gengezi Mgidlana, as respondents.
“The fact that I received notification at 10 o’clock last [Sunday] night on a matter initiated on Saturday is just a bit strange. They were aware of the ad hoc committee from at least the 3rd of November. They were served with notifications on the 17th of November.”
Parliament would be opposing the application, which would take place in the high court on Friday afternoon, Smith added.
African News Agency