Public trust and reputation key as parliament scouts for new SABC board

“You need to make sure the people are credible.”

This was the advice SABC board candidate Jack Phalane gave to parliament’s portfolio committee on communications which has set aside four days this week to interview candidates for the new board.

Phalane is one of six members of the outgoing board who have applied to serve a second term. He was appointed by then president Jacob Zuma in October 2017 and is one of four who completed their five-year term.

A lawyer by profession, Phalane is well versed in telecommunications and broadcasting law. 

On Tuesday, the first day of interviews, he sold himself as a credible and trustworthy candidate.

“I bring integrity and my aim is to always say ‘yes’ in what I do. You should trust me.

“Credibility is everything. The credibility of those who are heading any organisation is very important for the success of that organisation, and the SABC is not an exception.

“It is important that in this difficult task of making a decision about who should or be part of the SABC board, you need to make sure that people are credible,” Phalane said.

He availed himself for a second term because he wants to put into use the experience he’s gained over the past five years to sustain the broadcaster’s achievements.

Earlier in the day, DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard highlighted the importance of public trust and reputation when she posed questions to suspended property regulator boss Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi about allegations of wrongdoing against her.

Mohlala-Mulaudzi was emphatic there was a smear campaign against her and claimed she was targeted because she is a black woman executive.

She said she had been a whistle-blower when she discovered board members of the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority were involved in procurement processes, and instead of getting protection for her efforts, she was suspended by the authority.

For David Maimela, the outgoing board’s clean governance stance did a lot to improve the public image of the broadcaster.

“I think we were quite successful in making sure the SABC is not in the news for the wrong reasons. It was in the news a lot for bad reasons in the past. We have reduced that. I think the reputation of the SABC has somewhat stabilised,” he said.

However, when it comes to improving revenue for the public broadcaster, more work is needed.

Maimela said the matter was a structural question and structural changes needed to occur.

“The SABC is not agile enough to compete with its peers in the market. It requires particular structural changes to occur,” he said.

Maimela cited among the interventions needed are the high cost of signal distribution from Sentech, which he described as “very high and uncompetitive, bordering on abuse of dominance”.

The SABC has made submissions to the Competition Commission and the Independent Communications Authority of SA in this regard, he said.

“We have to deal with that. It’s one of the key cost drivers.”

Maimela, who was the chief of staff at the office of axed Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku between 2019 and 2020, also fielded questions about his integrity.

His contract ended with Masuku’s departure from the department after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU)  found corruption in its personal protective equipment contracts.

Maimela told MPs: “You are certainly not looking at a picture of corruption here. I am not corrupt. I have never stolen money.”

He said he was among the officials who unearthed the corruption long before the SIU became involved.

Dinkwanyane Mohuba spent a lot of time fending off questions around a scandal involving his doctoral degree which the University of Limpopo refused to award him.

He took the institution to court over this and wouldn’t go into detail because he didn’t want to impede on the sub judice rule, he said.

Mohuba was an executive director for marketing and communications at the university at the time. The institution later terminated his employment contract.

Kohler Barnard asked him for an explanation about the controversy and his dismissal from the university.

“It seems during your tenure at the SABC came a scandal about your doctoral degree involving the University of Limpopo, an institution you took to court and lost,  which refused to award your doctoral degree. You were suspended at that stage, you deregistered as a student, you were then fired because of allegations you hired two Zimbabweans who you flew to the country to write your thesis.”

Mohuba repeatedly denied he was suspended or dismissed from the university.

“I want to put it on record that I’ve never been suspended from the University of Limpopo and I was never fired.

“I took the matter to court on an urgent basis, and I did lose on the urgency but not on the facts.”

The matter was before the Supreme Court of Appeals, he said.

Despite vehemently denying he had been fired from the university, Mohuba later said: “I’m a victim whose contract was terminated without due process.”

Interviews continue on Wednesday.

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