Led by chairperson Dr Ben Ngubane and deputy chairperson Felleng Sekha, the newly appointed board of debt-ridden South African public broadcaster SABC took over from the interim board on 11 January. Together with new group CEO Solly Mokoetle, the board will have to restructure the broadcaster to negate the effects of years of financial and managerial mismanagement, as well as infighting.
Last year the Treasury allocated a R1.47bn guarantee to bail out the SABC. Apart from settling debts, it is believed that the new board will review the broadcaster’s central commissioning structure, the Content Hub, whose operational procedures have been a bone of contention with independent producers for several years. There are also several key senior vacancies, such as head of News, that need to be filled.
Mokoetle’s appointment as new group CEO last week was immediately followed by calls from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Congress of the People (COPE) to re-examine the 2005 Gobodo Report, in which Mokoetle was accused of alleged corporate governance failures.
Meanwhile, the civil grouping now known as Supporting Public Broadcasting (formerly SOS), has welcomed the appointment of Mokoetle, while admitting it would have been preferable had the new board, and not the interim board, appointed the new group CEO. Coordinator Kate Skinner points out that Mokoetle took the allegations made against him in the Gobodo Report to court and was exonerated. Skinner does believe, however, that the Gobodo Report should be scrutinised by the new board to satisfy it and the public.
(Sources: Business Day, www.sasfed.org)
