Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma will only appoint a new board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) after the parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of the embattled state-owned enterprise is concluded next year, the Presidency said on Wednesday.
“The President will wait for the National Assembly to conclude its inquiry. Any further decision regarding the SABC Board will be guided by the recommendations of the National Assembly,” Zuma’s spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said in a press release.
This week, the sole remaining SABC board member and its chairperson, Mbulaheni Maguvhe, resigned under a cloud of criticism for the lack of knowledge of affairs at the public broadcaster he displayed during the inquiry.
Zuma received and accepted Maguvhe’s resignation on Monday.
“The President has thanked Professor Maguvhe for his services during his tenure at the SABC and wished him all the best for his future endeavours.”
The once defiant University of SA (Unisa) professor had vowed not to step down after all the other board members resigned, with two of them tending their resignations during a recent committee sitting in Parliament which sought to address the issues at the public broadcaster.
Maguvhe, his legal team and senior SABC executives then walked out of the official start of the inquiry by Parliament’s ad hoc committee into the affairs of the public broadcaster earlier this month, saying that the process was not fair.
Maguvhe, who is blind, had through his legal team, requested from the committee that reports of the Auditor-General, Public Protector and Independent Communications Authority of South Africa be translated to braille, as not doing so could “jeopardise him”.
This was given short thrift by the multi-party committee though, which said he had been given ample time to prepare adequately for the hearings.
In the end, the committee had to summon him to appear at the hearing.
The committee heard seven days of explosive testimony about the “rot” that had beset the broadcaster, with MPs vowing to dig deeper when it resumes its work early next year.
MPs on the committee expressed deep concern at the belligerent behaviour of those running the state-owned broadcaster and the influence of the controversial Hlaudi Motsoeneng. Maguvhe though, told the committee that he believed Motsoeneng was doing a “sterling job” and defended his decision to vote for his permanent appointment as chief operating officer (COO) in July 2014.
The parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of the SABC wrapped up its work for 2016 earlier this month, with MPs vowing to dig deeper when it resumes its work early next year.