SABC: If it’s an inquiry the Board wants, it’s an inquiry the Board will get 

6 October 2016

This afternoon SABC Board chairperson, Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe, made it clear that he would not do the honourable thing by acceding to the Portfolio Committee on Communication’s request that the Board resign with immediate effect.

Maguvhe showed no remorse for the mess at the SABC, instead questioning the decisions made by the Committee yesterday. Maguvhe was obstinate in his insistence that he is going nowhere.

If Maguvhe is intent on taking the low road then Parliament will have no option but to proceed with the decision to institute a formal parliamentary inquiry into the fitness of the Board, and reveal the full scope of its malfeasance to the public.

Parliament must stick to its guns and institute this inquiry forthwith, because for too long the Board and Hlaudi Motsoeneng have acted shambolically and without due regard for the Constitution and the principles espoused therein.

It is time for parliament to conduct this inquiry and ultimately to recommend that the Board be dissolved and a new one established. One that is committed to its statutory obligations to operate in the public interest.  

The DA is committed to restoring the integrity and independence of the SABC and looks forward to participating fully in the process to hold it to account.

Issued by James Selfe, Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Executive, 7 October 2016