‘President isn’t a rubber stamper’: Gungubele says Ramaphosa will appoint SABC board ‘at the right time’

Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, has defended President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to appoint a new board for the SABC, saying “at the right time” – the president will make a decision on the appointment of the new board.

There are mounting calls from opposition parties and civil organisations for Ramaphosa to expedite the appointment of the board after the National Assembly in December recommended 12 candidates, including three additional names, for approval to serve on the SABC board.

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Wednesday marked exactly four months since the last SABC board dissolved on 15 October last year, and the public broadcaster’s group chief executive officer (GCEO), Madoda Mxakwe, has since been designated as the acting board chairperson.

Post-Cabinet briefing

Briefing the media on Thursday morning in Cape Town, on the outcomes of Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Gungubele said Ramaphosa was not a “rubber stamper” and was still applying his mind on the appointment of the new board.

This follows reports last month that the Presidency had requested the CVs and clearance certificates of the proposed board members before the president could approve the board.

“That is in the purview of the president. Once Parliament has done its work, it [list of recommended candidates] goes straight to the president, and the president is entitled to look at this because he is not a rubber stamper,” said Gungubele.

He added: “When it comes to him, he must analyse it [list of recommended candidates]. I’m not sure sometimes if he is able to take it back to Parliament or something like that; I don’t know. We leave that to the president”.

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Gungubele further appealed to South Africans to give Ramaphosa space to make a decision on the appointment of the SABC board.

“We hope that the president, at the right time, will take that decision,” he said.

Threat of legal action

Meanwhile, civil society organisations have threatened legal action as the public broadcaster continued to be without a board.

The lobby groups, labour unions as well as the Democratic Alliance (DA) have criticised the decision by Communication and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to appoint Mxakwe as the SABC’s interim board chairperson.

The organisations said the move would give the GCEO unfettered powers with no oversight from an independent board. They’ve also raised concerns that the absence of a board could affect the SABC’s governance and accountability.

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