A general view of the SABC's headquarters in Auckland Park, Johannesburg. Picture: Supplied.
Following mounting public pressure, President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally appointed a new board for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
In a statement on Tuesday, the Presidency said Ramaphosa had appointed 12 non-executive members of the board for a period of five years in terms of Section 13(1) of the Broadcasting Act.
Their term of office is effective from the date of the publication of notice in the Government Gazette.
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The president designated former National Youth Development Agency chief executive officer (CEO), Khathutshelo Ramukumba, as the chairperson of the SABC board.
The former CEO of the Association of Comms and Technology, Nomvuyiso Batyi, was appointed Ramukumba’s deputy.
The SABC has been without a board for almost six months and Ramaphosa was criticised for delaying the appointment of new members.
Ramaphosa wished the incoming board well on their duties, while acknowledging that the public broadcaster is a vital institution of the country’s constitutional democracy.
“I trust the newly appointed board members will work hard at ensuring that South Africa continues to benefit from a stable, independent and effective national public broadcaster,” he said.
The appointment of the SABC board comes after Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, earlier this month, received an independent legal opinion declaring that Ramaphosa had acted unlawfully by questioning its list of candidates for the board.
Parliament’s legal advisor, Andile Tetyana, told the committee that the president’s request for the names of the 12-member board to be reconsidered was “unprecedented and grossly unlawful”.
Tetyana said the list of names sent to Ramaphosa in December was “legally sound”.
Ramaphosa wrote a letter to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on 9 March, asking Parliament to reconsider the list of names that were originally given to him.
He said he had concerns about the legality of the process after 12 names were submitted to him, with an additional three names also selected in the event that any of the 12 recommended candidates were no longer available.
One of the 12 candidates, Frans Kruger, already withdrew from being part of the new board.
Additional reporting by Gareth Cotterell.
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