EDITOR – What we have witnessed in the past two weeks from the parliamentary inquiry into the SABC leaves one flummoxed and as South Africans we are very fortunate that our functional democracy is so transparent that provides us a glimpse of the inner workings of all state owned enterprises (SOEs) which the taxpayer funds.
The SABC represents only one of many parastatals or SOEs. The others include, inter alia, Denel, SA Airways, Eskom, SA Post Office, Petro SA, Passenger Rail Agency SA(PRASA), SANRAL and Transnet. Analysts have been saying that the weak financial position and poor performance within most of these SOEs raises the risk of more asset managers closing the taps on future funding and leading the pack was Futuregrowth which has by far a big slice of the funding risk of in excess of R150 billion.
In the light of the general poor performance of these SOEs the government established a Presidential State-Owned Enterprises Co-Ordinating Council on 14 August 2016 to oversee the stabilisation and reform of SOEs and to be chaired by the Deputy President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa. This act of creating a high level committee speaks volumes.
The mid-term budget tabled by the Finance Minister on 26 October revealed the National Treasury’s exposure to SOEs which stood at R469.9 billion with Eskom bearing the largest exposure of R170 billion followed by the Road Accident Fund at R155 billion, PRASA at R52 billion, SANRAL at R35 billion and SAA at 19.1 billion.
The context of providing the aforementioned information is to highlight that the SABC is but one of the smaller players in this quagmire, and given the evidence heard over the past week, gives one just a glimpse of organised chaos and also gives one a fair sense of how these other SOEs are being mismanaged. When the Chairperson of the SABC has no clue as to what transpired at his very own board meetings then there’s not much more one needs to know about how dysfunctional the SABC actually is.
If in trying to analyse how deeply intrinsic this issue is one is compelled to question the role of our esteemed Parliament in all of this because the problem has its origin in Parliament, which appoints the board members to these mismanaged SOEs. Cadre deployment is just two little words that are self explanatory in the context of this debate but this very self-serving process has cost the tax payer R469.9 billion for 2016 alone.
The public broadcaster is a very sacred part of the propaganda machinery of any country and that fact reveals itself when countries are faced with rebellion. A quick study of all coup de tats will show you how effectively the radio and television media is used in successfully implementing their take-over mission. The first act of capture by rebels is the broadcaster and that most recently was evidenced in the failed coup de tat in Turkey, when the rebels first port of call in their attempt to take over the country was the state controlled broadcaster. The rebels used this effectively in getting the message out to the public that they were now the de facto government.
It’s therefore clear that the ANC-led government continue to keep the SABC serviced by loyalists who manipulate the news and information that makes the government look good even when things are going south. This fact was revealed by one of the key witnesses who informed the Committee of Inquiry of how the journalists were instructed to keep out news that put the president in bad light.
There may be a simple solution for government in general and parliament specifically – steer away for cadre deployment and appoint people with skills and knowledge who would only enhance the performance of these SOEs.
Sicario
Durban
