SABC: ANC’s “change of heart” must give effect to parliamentary inquiry 

27 September 2016

We call on the ANC to dispense with its double-speak and to finally give effect to our request for a parliamentary inquiry into the complete chaos at the SABC. The ongoing machinations at the public broadcaster may in fact be in contravention of court rulings emanating from a Public Protector investigation prohibiting such conduct by the Minister and “acting” SABC COO, Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

This follows a statement by the ANC for “Parliament to summon the SABC to comprehensively account on the state of the corporation and its reported challenges.”

ANC National Spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, goes further to state that"the ANC believes that there is an undisputable link between good governance and compliance with the law and accordingly urge the SABC to ensure that it upholds, in deed, the letter and spirit of the Western Cape High Court ruling.” Kodwa further asserted that “no decisions taken by the board must be seen to, or have the effect of, undermining or circumventing the decision reached by our courts in this matter."

This is extremely bizarre since the ANC has consistently spoken with a forked-tongue in this regard and declined the DA’s request, in June, for Parliament’s urgent intervention pursuant to National Assembly (NA) Rule 223. This still has not happened.

If the ANC is serious about stabilising the leadership crisis at the public broadcaster they will institute this parliamentary inquiry without delay and abandon what we suspect is a PR stunt by the ANC.

For months the ANC has been benefiting from their deployment of Motsoeneng to the Public Broadcaster, and has chosen to remain mute and duplicitous in its handling of the deteriorating situation at the SABC.

The embattled party seems to have only recently awoken to the crisis that is the public broadcaster at Motsoeneng’s helm. 

What is surprising is the ANC’s sudden-found voice on the matter, calling for Minister Muthambi to “uphold the rule of law”, when they have been comfortable with appointing and retaining law-breaking cronies of President Zuma. 

The ANC has done nothing but disrespect court rulings; the epitome of this was the damning ruling by the Constitutional Court against President Jacob Zuma in relation to the Nkandla debacle. Added to this, they have upheld a culture of shaming the outgoing Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, for her findings into their perpetual corruption and failures, Motsoeneng’s included. 

The people of South Africa cannot, and will not be fooled by the ANC’s sudden “change of heart”. If the ANC is serious about restoring credibility to the public broadcaster they will accede to our request for a parliamentary inquiry without further delay.  

Issued by Karabo Tledima, Press Officer, 27 September 2016