Carrim must attest to validity of SABC/MultiChoice deal
29 September 2013
Communications Minister Yunus Carrim and the Chairperson of the former Interim South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board, Ms Ellen Tshabalala must come before Parliament to explain why the deal for 24-hour SABC-TV channels on the MultiChoice platform contradicts government's policy on digital terrestrial television (DTT).
The Sunday Times today reveals that the deal - signed on 3 July 2013 by SABC's Acting Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Acting Chief Financial Officer Christian Olivier and MultiChoice's CEO: Pay TV Platfortms Eben Greyling - prohibits the public broadcaster from making any of its channels available on any platform that uses access controls (see Business Times report).
We also need to know why a deal of this magnitude was not signed by the SABC's Group Chief Operating Officer Ms Lulama Mokhobo, and whether the terms of the deal had interim board approval before it was signed.
I understand that these conditions for the 24-hour news and entertainment channels were not put before the previous SABC board. We need to know how thoroughly the interim board understood the far-reaching consequences of this agreement and how thoroughly they interrogated the business case.