Parliament – The SABC will continue on autopilot until a temporary board is appointed when Parliament reconvenes in January.
This follows the long-drawn-out resignation of lone board chairman Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe on Monday.
The chairman of the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications, Humphrey Maxegwana, said Maguvhe’s resignation would not make any difference as the board was left without a quorum when Krish Naidoo and Vusi Mavuso resigned.
“Really it makes no difference on how the broadcaster has been operating in the past few months when a quorum could not be reached to take decisions.
“So nothing legally can be done as has been the case when the other board members resigned. When there is no board, no decisions can be taken,” Maxegwana said.
The next step would be to establish an interim board in line with the Broadcasting Act, “and that can only be done when we go back to Parliament on January 24”.
Political analyst Professor Somadoda Fikeni said in the interim Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, as shareholder of the SABC, could write a letter to the acting chief executive James Aguma, “with strict limitation on what he can and cannot do until the new or interim board is appointed”.
He said the broadcaster had been in limbo for a long time. No binding decisions could be taken since September.
Maxengwana would not be drawn on the letter by former chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng seeking clarity on his future at the broadcaster.
This after the courts ruled that his appointment as head of corporate affairs was invalid and he should stop reporting for duty.
On Monday SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said he was not aware of Motsoeneng’s letter.
He also declined to comment on Maguvhe’s resignation, saying the board was not appointed by the SABC.
Kganyago, however, revealed that Motsoeneng had not been reporting for duty following the Western Cape High Court ruling.
Fikeni said Motsoeneng “is also in limbo” because the public protector’s recommendation of disciplinary action against him had to be “enforced by the board, which is not there”.
Maxegwana said there was nothing stopping former board members from being re-appointed. But Motsoeneng could not have a second bite at the cake as he was no longer COO of the broadcaster.
“SABC employees can’t be appointed as non-executive board members. Motsoeneng served on the board by virtue of his being the COO and that’s not the case now,” explained Maxegwana.
Maguvhe’s resignation has cast the spotlight on the SABC inquiry which was investigating the board’s fitness to hold office.
DA spokeswoman and communications shadow minister Phumzile van Damme said the ad hoc committee investigating the rot within the broadcaster had resolved to continue its work even if Maguvhe threw in the towel.
“We have uncovered so much during the inquiry that it cannot be left without resolution or recourse,” said Van Damme.
“But as soon as Parliament reconvenes, the first priority will be to recommend names for an interim board and then we can go on with the inquiry,” she said.
Muthambi’s spokesman, Mishack Molageng, declined to comment and referred questions back to the parliamentary communications portfolio committee.