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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply concerned by the Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr. S. Malatsi’s sudden withdrawal of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) SOC Ltd Bill from Parliament where it was being engaged upon by the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee: Communications and Digital Technologies.
COSATU has supported the tabling of the SABC SOC Ltd Bill at Parliament. The challenges, controversies and abuses that have taken place at SABC over the decade of state capture and corruption are well known. Workers at SABC paid the painful and devastating price with retrenchments, wage freezes and outsourcing. The badly overstretched fiscus was placed under further pressure to bail out SABC due to incompetent management and corrupt tenderpreneurs who bled it dry.
We support the Bill’s progressive objectives seeking to overhaul the SABC’s existing legislative governance. Its provisions will help ensure we do not see a repeat of past malfeasance. COSATU appreciates the Bill’s provisions setting clear roles and guidelines for what the Minister responsible for Communications, can and critically, cannot do, including prohibiting interfering with the editorial content of its news division. It affirms Parliament’s role in the appointment of the Board and importantly protects the Board from untoward interference of a Minister.
COSATU applauds the Bill’s progressive provisions affirming SABC as a public broadcaster whose mandate includes public education, the promotion of all official languages and locally produced content, as well as enabling working class families to watch national and emerging sports events.
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Whilst welcoming the Bill’s progressive objectives, we are deeply opposed to the Bill’s failure to include representation for workers on the SABC Board as is provided in the Broadcasting Act. It is critical that workers’ views and challenges are heard on Boards. This careless omission must be reversed.
We believe the Bill passes constitutional muster. However, if the Minister or progressive civil society has concrete proposals on how the Bill can be strengthened, in particular on its funding model or governance, then these should be tabled at Parliament. We are however very worried by the sudden withdrawal of the Bill from Parliament. This is its second interruption within a year. The Bill is a substantial improvement over previous drafts. The risks of continuously delaying this important Bill is to further endanger SABC’s long term sustainability.
It is important the Minister take Parliament, workers and society into his confidence to clarify the timeframes envisaged for the retabling of the SABC Bill at Parliament and to assure the staff of SABC and its viewers that government’s intended new funding model does not include the breakup and privatisation of the public broadcaster.
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