A workshop with key stakeholders, including the government, found broad consensus on many of the key issues
This week the SABC celebrated its 85th birthday. The speech delivered by board chair Bongumusa Makhathini to mark the occasion was measured, covering the public broadcaster’s history, its repugnant apartheid mission, and some of its more recent failures.
Since 1999 the SABC and other broadcasters in the country have been governed by the Broadcasting Amendment Act. Not only is there a need for a new policy, but given the SABC’s unique position as the public broadcaster there is a need for an act to deal specifically with the SABC. A few years ago, under one of our less-than-competent ministers of communication, a draft SABC Bill was briefly put forward. It was bad. So bad that it was quickly and quietly withdrawn.
Earlier this week Media Monitoring Africa, led by broadcast media legal expert Justine Limpitlaw, hosted a closed workshop with key stakeholders, including the government, to discuss the draft bill. To their credit, the team from the department of communications & digital technologies were open and receptive to the issues being raised.
On the structure of the SABC, one of the key issues on which there was broad agreement was that the SABC should have a single public service mandate — there should be no public-commercial split. That idea, developed by McKinsey years ago, was intended for commercial services to cross-subsidise public ones. It never worked, and has instead seen the public cross-subsidising commercial services.
There was also support for the overall size of the board to be reduced to nine but not for the position of COO to be in effect dissolved. Having a public editor to help boost trust and credibility is another feature that should be included. The other key issue around which there appeared to be consensus, even though it would necessitate a constitutional amendment, was on the SABC being declared a chapter 9 institution, giving it the independence necessary for its protection in future.
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