A list of uncontested nominations for the new board of the beleaguered Media Advertising Printing Publishing Packaging-Sector Education Training Authority (MAPPP-SETA), has been tabled, following the recent drafting of a new Constitution. The next Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held in Midrand on 24 April.

Screen Africa readers will recall that the SETA was put under administration on 9 October last year by Minister of Labour Mmembathisi Mdladlana. The SETA's troubles date back to late 2005 and relate to alleged financial and administrative irregularities. The appointed administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), was mandated to put financial systems in place and to facilitate the drawing up of a new Constitution, with input from SETA constituents and to oversee the election of a new board.

As per the Constitution, the SETA, which formerly comprised six chambers, is now made up of eight sectors. These are: Advertising & Visual Arts, Film & Electronic Media, Performing Arts, Cultural Heritage, Print Media, Packaging, Printing, and Publishing.

"While we welcome the new Constitution and feel it is a step closer to our goals, there are one or two problematic points. We are concerned that The Minister of Labour has not yet responded to our letter dated 5 March requesting that he exclude all the suspended members of the 'old board' from eligibility in the nomination and election of a new board. In the same letter we further called for a full forensic audit of all the SETA's operations from 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2008, the reimbursement of all irregular expenditure to the SETA and the prosecution of those found to have been responsible for any financial irregularity.

Read more in the April 2008 issue of Screen Africa