Parliament – The National Assembly on Wednesday gave the green light for the appointment of a five-person interim board to steer the unsteady South African Broadcasting Corporation into calmer waters.
Krish Naidoo, Febe Potgieter-Nqubule, Khanyisile Kweyama, Mathatha Tsedu and John Mattison now make up the board.
They were named by the portfolio committee on communications last week after the former 15-member board was dissolved, including the executive members, following a damning report from an ad hoc committee which probed the embattled broadcaster's affairs.
The Assembly has nominated Kweyama, a former chief executive officer of Business Unity South Africa, as the chairwoman and Tsedu, a veteran journalist as her deputy.
Naidoo is a human rights lawyer and former SABC board member who resigned during a committee meeting last year and testified during the parliamentary inquiry into the broadcaster that he had objected to the appointment of the controversial former SABC chief operating officer as well as several dodgy deals struck at the broadcaster.
Febe Potgieter-Nqubule is a former African National Congress MP and recently served as deputy chief of staff of former African Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
John Mattison, a Democratic Alliance nominee and journalist completes the list of five board members. The list of names would now be sent to President Jacob Zuma, the appointing authority, for approval.
MPs have said the five would have to hit the ground running given the breakdown of corporate governance and the precarious cash flow situation at the broadcaster, as highlighted during the parliamentary inquiry.