Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance on Thursday tentatively welcomed the appointment of Frans Matlala as the new CEO of the SABC, saying it hoped he would prove a counterweight to its controversial chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
“There is certainly cause for cautious optimism with this appointment,” DA communications spokesman Gavin Davis said.
Davis said the opposition first of all drew comfort from the fact that Motsoeneng was not promoted to the post.
“Firstly, the new CEO is not SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng. This, in itself, is a positive development,” he said.
“Secondly, Mr Frans Matlala appears to be highly qualified with extensive private sector experience. Perhaps he will be able to find some innovative solutions to the challenges the SABC faces.”
Davis said he hoped that Matlala would have taken note of the short, unhappy tenure of his predecessor Lulama Mokhobo who resigned from the post more than a year ago after just eleven months as CEO.
“The Public Protector found that Ms. Mokhobo’s position was made untenable by Motsoeneng’s campaign to bully and undermine her.”
Therefore, he said, the key for Matlala to succeed would be for him to rapidly assert his authority over the troubled public broadcaster.
“Already, the signs are good that Mr Matlala will put Motsoeneng in his place. Yesterday (Wednesday), Mr Matlala told the media that creating cults around managers does not yield good results. This can only be interpreted as a thinly veiled criticism of the personality cult that Motsoeneng has created around himself.”
Matlala is a banking executive who has served as a consultant to the SABC on strategies and project management. After his appointment was announced on Wednesday, he told media that he believed the SABC had the potential to become the African equivalent of the respected BBC.
Motsoeneng has been the de facto head of the SABC since Mokhobo quit in February last year. His appointment as permanent COO despite recommendations from the Public Protector that he face a disciplinary process is being challenged in court by the DA.
ANA