South Africa’s newly appointment Minister of Communications, Yunus Carrim, and Deputy Minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, met with the board and management of beleaguered public broadcaster SABC, as well as with trade unions, on 17 July in Johannesburg.
“The aim was to hear from the SABC what their challenges are, what progress there’s been since the interim board was appointed and how the Department of Communications (DoC) can offer more assistance to the SABC to become more stable and be far more effective,’ said Minister Carrim.
He continued: “The SABC board and management agreed with us that we need to settle outstanding matters related to broadcasting digital migration, including the set-top box issues, so that the project is expeditiously implemented in all our interests. It was also agreed that challenges in filling senior management posts will be addressed urgently.
“Now that we have received outstanding information on the shareholder compact, we are committed to finalising it within 10 days.’
SABC board chairperson, Ellen Tshabalala commented: “I am delighted that the Minister visited the SABC so soon after his appointment and is so committed to working closely with the board to contribute to our functioning more effectively. We are determined to play our full role in turning the SABC around and we see the Minister’s visit as an important step in that regard.’
It was decided to establish a Joint Task Team between the SABC and the DoC to begin work immediately to finalise the issues agreed to at the meeting and report back to the next meeting between the Minister, Deputy Minister and SABC, to be held in two weeks.
