Communications minister Solly Malatsi has withdrawn the controversial SABC Bill, arguing that it does not adequately address the public broadcaster’s funding model, the Sunday Times reported at the weekend.
According to the newspaper, the bill would have also given the minister – currently Malatsi – too much power over the appointment of the SABC’s board, thereby threatening its constitutionally mandated independence from the executive arm of government.
Malatsi’s move will be welcomed by civil society bodies, including Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition, which have called on the bill in its current form to be scrapped.
The bill had been tabled in parliament by former communications minister Mondli Gungubele, an ANC politician who now serves as deputy minister under Malatsi, whose party is the Democratic Alliance.
Michael Markovitz, head of the Gibs Media Leadership Think Tank at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, has previously described the now-withdrawn SABC Bill as “flawed and constitutionally suspect”.
The SOS Coalition and Media Monitoring Africa previously wrote to parliament’s portfolio committee on communications & digital technologies calling for the bill to be scrapped. That was based on their belief that it offered “no clarity, new mechanism or purpose”.
“Rather, it represents a rehash of old ideas with regressive notions and a reversal of significant gains in the independence and credibility of the SABC,” they said.
Read: SABC Bill draws more howls of protest
SOS, MMA and the South African National Editors’ Forum collectively made a submission to parliament in January this year in which they expressed deep concerns regarding the bill. The organisations pointed out “a series of catastrophic and unconstitutional flaws” with the draft legislation and said it should be withdrawn. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
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