MWASA (The Media Workers Association of South Africa) has issued this statement following the dissolution of the board of public service broadcaster SABC by the national assembly on 19 March. The statement reads: MWASA is utterly disheartened and disappointed following the rushed, hatched job of imposing an interim board at the SABC. The board finally imploded after it had consistently declared itself dysfunctional.
We are dismayed and shocked that the national assembly has allowed an opportunity to display commitment to higher standards of oversight to slip through the fingers of parliament. It is parliament that legislated the process and prescribed conditions such as the requisite “due inquiry’ and “due diligence’ in circumstances such as prevailing at the SABC. Yet the highest oversight structure in the country consciously opts for scrapping and foraging at the bottom of the barrel to comply with the barest minimum requirements possible.
The decision to bludgeon and ram through the nomination and recommendation of interim board candidates without thorough scrutiny of the challenges and circumstances that resulted in the final demise of the self-confessed “dysfunctional board’ is in our view at best negligent and even amounts to dereliction. It is difficult to fathom how the actions of the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications and subsequently the national assembly will result in a board supported by South Africans who believe this country can rise above its challenges.
It will be equally difficult for workers at the SABC and indeed in the sector to trust parliament if such aversion to good governance is gleefully pursued and thus established as standard operating procedure, business as usual.
Earlier on 19 September 2012 MWASA picketted outside the SABC and called on the presidency to intervene to stem the collapse of the SABC and indeed the stagnation of the media and ICT sector. We highlighted the policy and operational instability imputed through frequent changes at the level of Ministers and the debilitating weaknesses of the parliamentary committee, and the oversight structure which was successfully demonstrated again yesterday.
We had called then for the removal of the now-imploded conflict-driven board as well as for an investment of qualified, capable South Africans in the oversight and management structures of the SABC. We are currently saddled with compromised characters at many levels of the value chain facing investigations, inquiries and probes by various agents including the Auditor General, the Public Protector and others. The parliamentary committee avoided another opportunity for the public to get first-hand information on the challenges that their institution, the SABC, is facing.
MWASA believes sweeping the glaring challenges that led to the dissolution of the Ben Ngubane-led board under the carpet by invoking the most conservative reading of “due inquiry’ is an attempt to whitewash the culture of corruption, indescretion, criminality and abuse of privilege.
While South Africans will always come second best out of all this, it is primarily an insult and a gross disservice to the long-suffering employees of the SABC who have mostly served the corporation loyally while ministerial, board and executive shenanigans repeated themselves daily without relent. SABC has been in the news for all the unflattering reasons and this has a direct knock-on effect on the staff.
Despite being ignored by the powers that be, MWASA has been consistent in representing the ideals and aspirations of thoroughly abused staff harrassed into catatonic stupors and walking zombies. Staff members are terrified because there seemingly is no protection from structures such as the parliamentary committee and now the national assembly against abuse of power, abuse of process, abuse of managerial prerogative and abuse of privilege to lead.
There are many loyal, productive and diligent employees of the SABC who have worked for years without recognition, commensurate compensation or respect for their human dignity.
There are hundreds of workers who have not benefitted from any application of provisions of positive legislation such as the basic-conditions-of employment, employment-equity or the skills- development acts. Yet, under these inhumane conditions, these tortured workers continue to bring minute-by-minute programmes to millions of South Africans. They continue to serve South Africa, but more-so, continue to provide organisational base for sometimes corrupt, inept but over-paid managers, executives and board members. This is unsupported by our constitutional dispensation and constitutes gross abuse.
MWASA believes that the least Parliament could have done was to solicit the input of the so-called “First Citizens” within the employ of the SABC.
Workers must not be ignored.
The SABC is nothing without these men and women.
MWASA calls on the presidency not to endorse the process followed in imposing the interim board and to indeed insist on an inclusive, consultative engagement above expediency. If the workers do not generally trust the process, we may not find resonance with the outcome.
Should the Presidency not conscientiously and seriously consider the full impact of ignoring dwindling public faith in this process, it is our fear that this will be counter-productive and may result in further erosion of faith and trust necessary for stability and refocus at the SABC.
MWASA supports an independent public broadcaster and will continue to champion the conversion of the SABC to a Chapter 9 institution.
The SABC must be free from political interference and must serve all peoples of South Africa equally.
