Khusela Diko, the ANC MP who chairs parliament’s portfolio committee on communications & digital technologies, has slammed communications minister Solly Malatsi’s decision to withdraw the contentious SABC Bill.
Diko said on Sunday in response to the news of the minister’s decision that the move will “sound the death knell” for the struggling public broadcaster. Malatsi is a member of the Democratic Alliance, appointed to the communications ministry in the government of national unity. Diko’s criticism comes despite strenuous objections from broadcasters and civil society groups, including Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Coalition regarding the bill.
The Sunday Times reported that Malatsi had withdrawn the bill because it did not adequately address the SABC’s urgent funding needs and handed the minister too much power in appointing members of the board.
“While appreciative of the fact that as the executive authority, the minister may rescind the bill for whatever reason before its second reading in the house, the chairperson (Diko) holds that this decision by the minister [is] highly ill-advised, and it is no exaggeration to say it [will] sound the death knell for the SABC,” Diko’s statement said.
“The challenges facing the SABC require a considered and urgent response, not trigger-happy action, which serves no purpose but to frustrate and disrupt processes already under way,” she said.
“To withdraw the bill at this stage means to delay the implementation of crucial reforms necessary to save yet another crucial and strategic public institution. Initiated by the government in 2018 and only introduced to parliament in October 2023, the SABC Bill seeks to, among other things, provide for the continued existence of the SABC…,” Diko stated.
‘Critical legislation’
“To date, the bill has undergone a thorough public participation process, with the sixth parliament having received about 20 written submissions from the SABC itself, academia, youth representatives, organised labour and other interested parties. The seventh parliament, understanding the urgent challenges facing the public broadcaster, prioritised this critical legislation and held oral hearings into the submissions in September 2024,” she added in the statement.
“The committee diligently studied and interrogated these submissions, and all concerns raised by stakeholders were attended to. The department of communications & digital technologies, which the minister leads, was expected to have responded to the issues raised during the public participation process by 17 October 2024.
Read: ‘Catastrophic’ SABC Bill must be withdrawn
“This process under way and agreed to by the committee and in the minister’s presence would have provided the committee with a clear way forward to amend the bill as provided for in the rules of parliament and subvert any unnecessary delays in the processing of this sorely needed legislation.”
She said she “remains convinced that the issues raised by civil society, including the Democratic Alliance, relating to a lack of clarity on the funding model of the public mandate of the SABC, time limits on the president on the appointment of the SABC board, the creation of a subsidiary commercial company and board, and the potential ‘lack of independence’ in the appointment of the subsidiary commercial company, were not insurmountable and could have been remedied through an amendment by the committee.”
In light of the bill’s withdrawal, Diko said the department of communications should quickly rework it and reintroduce it in parliament in the current financial year (to March 2025).
“In the meantime, the committee will invite the minister to indicate how, in the interim, the financial situation at the public broadcaster will be improved to ensure sustainability until this much-needed legislation is amended and the issues attendant to it are resolved”.
“Failure to reintroduce the bill timeously will leave individual members of the committee or the committee itself with no option but to entertain introducing a committee or private members’ bill in the best interest of the SABC for consideration by parliament.”
Read: Cancelled SABC Bill hearings ruffle feathers
The SOS Coalition, Media Monitoring Africa and the South African National Editors’ Forum collectively made a submission to parliament in January 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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