SABC's Ngubane must go

SABC board chairperson Dr Ben Ngubane must be removed from office in the interests of stability at the public broadcaster.

He clearly does not enjoy the confidence of his board colleagues, who last week met without him to fire Dr Ngubane's favoured executive, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, from his post of acting chief operating officer.

At the weekend Dr Ngubane re-instated the widely disliked Mr Motsoeneng to his post pending another board meeting at which the controversy will be discussed.

This is a shambolic state of affairs that does no credit to the board or the SABC. But Dr Ngubane's enthusiastic support of Mr Motsoeneg, who is unqualified and unsuited for his post, is the core issue. Dr Ngubane is responsible for this sorry state of affairs and must be removed at once.

It was the doubtful credibility of Mr Motsoeneng's report on the Special Investigating Unit's progress into cases of corruption at the SABC that prompted the board to oust him. If the report is anything like the one he presented to Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Communications last September it is sloppy and probably inaccurate.

The SABC is in a delicate phase of its turnaround strategy that would restore it to good governance, profitability and stability; all of which are critical for the successful transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) by mid-2015. It is vital that the board be guided by someone competent to oversee this strategy.

The Portfolio Committee on Communications - which chooses the board members from which the President selects the chairperson - meets tomorrow and I will ask the chairperson that we discuss urgent steps to rid the board of a leader who has lost the confidence of his colleagues, and seek to appoint a new and  credible chairperson.

Statement issued by Marian Shinn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Communications, March 4 2013

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