A second SABC board member has resigned. Magatho Mello apparently resigned at the same time as fellow board member Barbara Masekela in the middle of August but was asked by the Department of Communications to reconsider his decision.
Mello’s decision to hand in his resignation is said to be directly related to frustration at the board’s inability to perform its duties, the acrimony with chairman Ben Ngubane and the delay in the parliamentary communication committee hearings. The South African National Editors Forum obtained an interdict preventing the parliamentary portfolio committee hearing on 24 August on the basis of the exclusion of the public at the meeting with the SABC. Parliament has yet to set a new date to reconvene its hearing into the SABC crisis.
Mello is an information technology specialist and journalist, and his digital convergence knowledge is seen as a loss of expertise within the operations of the board.
It is feared that further resignations would result in the collapse of the board.
