MPs send SABC bosses packing over board mess

Parliament is unable to hold anyone accountable for the running of the SABC as it has no board and its CEO Madoda Mxakwe has not been designated as its accounting authority in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

The startling revelation emerged on Wednesday during a meeting with several leaders of the SABC. It was led by deputy communications minister Philly Mapulane and attended by members of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).

The meeting with the public finance body had been scheduled to discuss, among other issues, Special Investigating Unit investigations at the SABC and irregular expenditure of more than R2.9bn that dates back to 2018.

MPs from the ANC and the DA, along with Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa from the IFP, objected about the meeting going ahead when they learnt from Mapulane that finance minister Enoch Godongwana had not yet designated Mxakwe as the accounting authority of the SABC in terms of the PFMA.

Mxakwe, at the Soccer World Cup in Qatar negotiating broadcasting rights, designated SABC CFO Yolande van Biljon to lead the public broadcaster’s delegation

The SABC has no board of directors after the mandate of the previous board expired at the end of September.

In October, parliament’s communications committee moved to interview potential board members, but the appointments were frustrated by the State Security Agency (SSA) allegedly dragging its feet in vetting 34 names.

Hlengwa lashed the SSA for its tardiness, and he and ANC MP Bheki Hadebe said it was problematic that all parties — the SABC and the communications and finance ministries — had failed to appoint an interim accounting authority in the absence of a board.

After a 10-minute caucus among the parties represented in Scopa, Mapulane and the SABC chiefs were sent packing, with MPs arguing they were not prepared to “regularise the SABC’s irregularities”.

“Either an interim board should have been appointed or the CEO should have been correctly designated, and National Treasury has not responded.

“Even if for a day, the fact that you’ve laboured from October, when the board’s term expired, to go this long without an accounting authority speaks to the lapses at the SABC.

"This on its own highlights the issues” said Hlengwa.

Hadebe weighed in: “The management coming here should have known they don’t have the required designation to speak as an accounting authority. They should have known they appear before this committee as per the PFMA which prescribes who should account.

“Perhaps we could have avoided this situation. We could have saved travelling costs, accommodation and time. That should not happen in future because it’s you who were privy to such information until we started our meeting. You brought this to our attention.

“I’m highlighting a point of a laissez-faire attitude in dealing with issues.”

The communications committee on Tuesday announced it had scheduled a meeting for Thursday to finalise the names of 12 candidates to be recommended for appointment as SABC non-executive directors after finally receiving the vetting report from the SSA.

Once approved by the committee, the 12 names will be sent for endorsement by a sitting of the National Assembly before being sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa for his approval in terms of the Broadcasting Act.

- TimesLIVE