Johannesburg - Friday is the deadline for South Africans to forward nominations for suitable candidates for the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board of directors to Parliament's communications committee.
Candidates needed to possess relevant qualifications, expertise and experience in broadcasting policy and technology, media law, broadcasting regulation, business practice and finance, journalism, marketing, and should be South African citizens or permanent residents in the republic, said committee chairwoman, Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize.
The public broadcaster was thrown deeper into crisis when several of its interim board members resigned en masse earlier this month. The cash-strapped SABC is facing resistance to plans to retrench at least 2 000 workers to cut escalating costs and stay afloat, and is in need of a government guarantee to allow it to borrow cash from banks and other lending institutions.
Following periods of wasteful expenditure and ineffective boards, the SABC has emerged technically insolvent and owes service providers hundreds of millions of rand. Furthermore, the previous interim board, led by Khanyisile Kweyama, who also tendered her resignation, is being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit over the irregular awarding of a R185 million tender to Mafoko Security Services.
The board has denied any wrongdoing, saying that their resignations had nothing to do with the SIU probe.
The Kweyama-led board was appointed in March 2017.