Wednesday, July 06, 2016

ANC Says Qualified Leaders Needed at the SABC
Neo Goba
05 July, 2016 18:30

“Vacancies at the most senior and critical positions within the institution as well as ongoing court challenges facing the COO [Hlaudi Motsoeneng]‚ serve to weaken general managerial control and have led to a collapse of corporate governance within the organisation‚" ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said.

The African National Congress says it believes that the lack of expertise at top managerial level at the South African Broadcasting Corporation has led from "one crisis to another".

"It is the considered view of the ANC that the various crisis engulfing the SABC are a consequence of a lack of leadership at the institution‚” ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu told a media briefing at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

ANC distances itself from SABC editorial changes

“Vacancies at the most senior and critical positions within the institution as well as ongoing court challenges facing the COO [Hlaudi Motsoeneng]‚ serve to weaken general managerial control and have led to a collapse of corporate governance within the organisation‚" Mthembu added.

Mthembu‚ who also chairs the ANC national executive committee’s subcommittee on communications‚ said the ruling party wanted people who were qualified for positions to lead the public broadcaster.

"We want people who are qualified to lead the SABC… We have said this so many times to all ministers that were appointed to this position of [minister of communications]. We have said to them ' You need to ensure that we have got people who know how to run an institution as big as the SABC at the highest level.

"You can't bring any Tom‚ Dick or Harry to run such a big institution‚" said Mthembu.

The chief whip said he believed the ANC as the governing party should have been notified about changes made at the broadcaster. He added that the party was just as "clueless" as the rest of South Africa about why the SABC had introduced editorial changes.

In May‚ the SABC implemented a new editorial policy‚ prohibiting the broadcasting of violent images during protests.

Mthembu has described the decision not to broadcast violent images at protests as “unintelligent”.

“There is nobody in South Africa who needs somebody else to decide [for them] which pictures must they see.”

He said while the ANC did not condone the burning of property‚ the nation had the right to be shown the truth as it is. He labelled the decision not to show the truth as censorship.

Meanwhile‚ earlier on Tuesday afternoon‚ trade union Solidarity said it would approach the Constitutional Court to challenge the constitutionality of the suspension of three SABC journalists. This follows the SABC’s failure to accede to Solidarity’s request to revoke the suspension of Foeta Krige‚ executive director of Monitor and Spektrum‚ journalist Suna Venter‚ and business editor Thandeka Gqubule.

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