Upon hearing this week that communications minister Solly Malatsi had withdrawn the fundamentally flawed SABC Bill, I was immediately inclined to welcome the decision publicly.
The bill had been widely criticised by leading industry, civil society and media groups, which were united in calling for the bill to be withdrawn and for policy to be finalised before it was tabled again.
This piece was originally published on Michael Markovitz’s Substack, Media Explorations – read the original article here
I was therefore surprised when the chair of parliament’s portfolio committee on communications & digital technologies, Khusela Sangoni Diko, issued a strong statement condemning the withdrawal of the bill, and the deputy minister, Mondli Gungubele, took to X on the same day to criticise the decision of his minister.
For those unfamiliar with the political landscape, Malatsi is a member of the Democratic Alliance, while Gungubele and Diko are members of the ANC. Their parties are partners in the government of national unity.
In terms of cooperative governance, it would have been preferable for the minister to discuss the bill’s withdrawal with his deputy and the committee chair before making his decision, even though he is not legally required to do so. On a talk show the following morning, Gungubele was more sanguine, acknowledging that while he considered the bill’s withdrawal “ill-advised”, he would meet with Malatsi for further discussions and seemed confident that a resolution could be reached.
This situation may simply reflect typical coalition politics and point-scoring, but regardless, the public would expect the minister and the legislature to collaborate in order to resolve the ongoing challenges at the SABC and to deal with broader industry policy.
Not correct
Interestingly, Gungubele, who initially tabled the widely criticised bill as minister in October 2023, defended the core elements. “The sound financial model is generally agreed upon by stakeholders… It just needs amendment,” he said, adding that the “mere amendment of the bill within the parliamentary processes is fine” since “most controversial matters are largely agreed.”
This is not correct. While most interested parties agree that the current financial model and television licence fee system has been broken for a long time, there is certainly not agreement on “a sound financial model” or on “most controversial matters”. Instead of taking responsibility for the original bill he had tabled, Gungubele took the position that parliament could simply fix and amend the bill.
Read: Withdrawal of bill puts SABC at risk of collapse: Diko
However, it’s not feasible to “fix” a bill that is essentially a copy-paste from the 1999 statute, with some constitutionally questionable and largely unexplained alterations. The reality is that there is still no final white paper on the future of the SABC or on the overarching policy and regulatory framework within which the SABC operates.
So, what should the next steps be? Since policy should always guide legislation, there is a strong case for tackling both the proposed SABC funding policy and the audio and audiovisual content services (AAVCS) policy framework together in a single white paper. This approach has been attempted twice before – in 2020 and 2023 – but was seemingly abandoned.
Diving a bit deeper, following a finalised white paper, the logical next step would be to simultaneously introduce two amendment bills: the Broadcasting Act Amendment Bill, transforming into the SABC Act, and an Electronic Communications Act (ECA) Amendment Bill, which would remove the broadcasting services chapter in the ECA and replace it with a chapter on AAVCS.
This sequence would ensure that the final SABC Act aligns with the terminology and policy framework of the overarching industry legal provisions, including the updated definitions in the amended ECA. This approach was proposed in the 2020 draft white paper, and now, four years on, we really don’t have the luxury of separate policy and legislative processes for the SABC and AAVCS.
Read: Malatsi intervenes after Sentech threat to cut SABC transmissions
I’ve spent my fair share of time assigning blame for past policy failures and missed opportunities. But now is the time for the minister, parliament and all stakeholders to work together and finally modernise South Africa’s policy and law on public service media and AAVCS after decades of delay.
- Michael Markovitz is head of the Gibs Media Leadership Think Tank
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