Delay in the appointment of SABC board unfortunate, says Presidency

However, the president has so far not appointed the board and is apparently querying the process followed by the National Assembly and some candidates.

At the weekend, the Sunday Times reported that civil society body Media Monitoring Africa has taken Ramaphosa to the Constitutional Court on an urgent basis, asking it to compel him to appoint a board.

Magwenya explained that when Ramaphosa received the candidates’ shortlist on December 20 2022, there were issues that required clarification on the side of parliament with respect to what was handed to Ramaphosa.

“Unfortunately, the resumes of the candidates were handed to the president only between 10 and 13 January so the process was already behind schedule. 

“It did not help that there were issues that were identified to be inconsistent with the law and the president could not proceed while those issues had not been clarified.”  

He said there were objections with respect to certain individuals. 

“The president wanted clarification as to how those objections were dealt with. We are hoping that those issues will be clarified fairly soon and the president can appoint board members.” 

While this was not an ideal situation, Magwenya said, the SABC is a critical institution of our democracy. “It is urgent that governance at the SABC is managed in accordance with the various statutory provisions and that means there must be a board in place and that’s something that the president is fully aware of.”

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