The proposed SABC Bill would give Minister Nyanda wide-ranging powers

The Minister of Communications, Siphiwe Nyanda, said yesterday afternoon that the Democratic Alliance (DA) was wrong to claim that the proposed Public Service Broadcasting Bill would give him "unprecedented authority [over] the public broadcaster" (see here). The provisions which seek to confer this level of influence upon the Minister are, however, clearly spelled out in the proposed legislation:

Firstly, under this legislation, the Minister would become "ultimately responsible for the effective monitoring of the implementation of this Act", with the help of an advisory board, to be appointed by the minister.

Secondly, the proposed legislation affords the Minister greater control over the SABC's finances. Section 4 grants the Minister the authority to determine which categories of persons would be subjected to the proposed 1% personal income tax. Section 7 further proposes bestowing the Minister with the authority to determine how monies received from the tax are to be distributed.

Thirdly, section 37 allows the Minister to "...instruct the board to take any action specified by the Minister if the Corporation is in financial difficulty, unable to perform its functions effectively or fails to comply with any law." Through the issuing of such directives to the Board, the Minister would effectively be usurping the Board's authority and independence.

Fourthly, in the addendum to the Bill, the Charter of the Corporation contains a provision that the board may only appoint the Group Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and their equivalents after consultation with the Minister. This would have the effect of giving the Minister the prerogative to appoint the senior management of the SABC.

The Charter further makes the corporation as a whole directly accountable to the Minister in his/her capacity as the shareholder.

The granting of these powers to the Minister as a member of the government and of the executive would taint the independence of the SABC, and cause public broadcasting to slip further down the slippery slope towards becoming the mouthpiece of the government of the day - currently the ANC - as was the case during apartheid. It must be noted that many of the powers that the proposed legislation seeks to bestow upon the Minister are not dissimilar to the powers that were granted to the President and the Minister of National Education under the Broadcasting Act of 1973.

The DA has suggested to Minister Nyanda that, in order to protect the SABC's independence, his role be limited to the status quo, and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) perform the duties of monitoring compliance at the SABC.

Whilst it has become common cause that ICASA has been largely ineffectual due to its lack of decisive action on a number of crucial issues, the solution is for Parliament and the Department of Communications to strengthen this crucial Chapter 9 institution so that it becomes more effective, rather than for the Minister to attempt to replicate its functions in this manner.

Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko, Democratic Alliance deputy shadow minister of communications, January 20 2010

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