DA to oppose Maguvhe interdict on SABC committee

29 November 2016

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will go to court to oppose the interdict against members of the SABC Ad Hoc Committee, including DA MP, Phumzile van Damme, from participating in the inquiry.

The interdict by the last remaining board member, Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe, is a last ditch attempt to intimidate members of Parliament and to protect the SABC from scrutiny. It will not succeed.

The interdict seeks to do several things:

- Disqualify three members of the committee on the basis that they are biased
- Set aside the summons to produce documents to the committee
- Suspend all proceedings of the current Ad Hoc Committee
- Compel the National Assembly to reconstitute the committee

In essence the interdict seeks to delay and frustrate the important work of the National Assembly to hold to account our public broadcaster which has in the past few months acted as a law unto itself.

It is a costly and unnecessary exercise by one man who is seeking to cling to power for his own sake, while ignoring the desperate need to restore the integrity of the national broadcaster, which is what Parliament is seeking to do through the Ad Hoc Committee.

Not only is this interdict vexatious but it is ludicrous. It follows a string of events by the Chairperson and other members of the SABC who have repeatedly used intimidation and delay tactics against Parliament and its members.

The DA is confident that this interdict will not succeed and that in the end Prof. Maguvhe as the last remaining member of the SABC Board will be held to account to Parliament.

It is in the interests of our Constitutional democracy that the public broadcaster be held to account and that the citizens of South Africa can be given the opportunity to have the current crisis investigated in depth by their elected representatives in Parliament.

Issued by James Selfe, Chairperson of the DA's Federal Executive, 29 November 2016