Two community television stations have withdrawn from the nascent body formed to represent the sector‚ the Association of Community Television — South Africa (Act-SA).

Cape Town TV and 1KZN TV both resigned from Act-SA‚ citing unbridgeable differences with the initiative. This leaves Tshwane TV‚ Soweto TV and Bay TV as the only licensed community broadcasters to participate in the initiative‚ along with a few other unlicensed community TV groups.

Act-SA was initiated more than two years ago in May 2013 when a grouping of community television organisations agreed to the formation of the body.

“The intention was to form Act-SA as a distinct legal entity which operates on behalf of its members‚ namely the community television stations licensed as such by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa as well as those seeking such licenses‚” a joint statement by Cape Town TV station manager‚ Karen Thorne and 1KZN TV station manager‚ Edwin Mncwango said on Thursday.

The participating organisations had signed a memorandum of understanding on May 29 2013‚ following the election of a steering committee whose mandate was to organise the annual general meeting‚ at which the constitution would be ratified and a leadership elected.

“One of the main problems that led to the demise of the initiative is that the steering committee failed to organise an AGM‚ leading to a situation where the initiative lacked legitimacy.”

Act-SA had not met since March 2014 and the body was “to all intents and purposes defunct”.