The Democratic Alliance has welcomed progress made by communications minister Yunus Carrim in resolving the appointment of a permanent chief operating officer at the SABC, saying the issue has dragged on for years and undermined the public broadcaster.
DA shadow communications minister Marian Shinn says, however, that Carrim “must ensure that only appropriately qualified and experienced candidates are shortlisted for the position”.
“The job of managing the SABC, a multibillion-rand corporation, requires exceptional managerial qualifications, skills and experience, something which has been sorely lacking from the current acting chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng,” Shinn says in a statement.
“Motsoeneng, who does not have a matric qualification, has no relevant degree, diploma or appropriate qualification required for the post, has run the SABC as his private fiefdom,” she says. “He drove the collapse of the previous board, through his political connections, because it dared resolve to remove him from the acting chief operating officer post in February this year.”
The DA will ask Carrim to stress to the SABC board that it must exercise its fiduciary duties with utmost care when evaluating and recommend candidates for his final selection, she adds.
“The pending advertisement for the post must state the importance of candidates having appropriate qualifications as well as a verifiable track record of good corporate governance. The advertisement must not be written to suit the current acting incumbent, the legality of whose tenure is in doubt,” she says.
“The legal issue that has hampered the appointment of a permanent chief operating officer at the SABC and which has been vacant since 2006 has been a major cause of uncertainty and has jeopardised good corporate governance. It also led to the usurpation by the acting chief operating officer of some of the responsibilities of the group CEO and to the politicisation of the post.”
Shinn says that having the best-qualified and experienced person appointed to the job is “critical if the SABC is to be pulled from the mire into which it has plunged, particularly during the past year, when it received one of its worst-ever auditor-general reports.” — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
