After weeks of stalling, President Jacob Zuma has finally rubber-stamped the appointment of a permanent SABC board — but only after civil society groupings threatened him with legal action if he failed to do so.

Zuma is reportedly unhappy about several of the board candidates put forward by parliament to take board seats at the financially distressed public broadcaster.

The president may finally have had his hand forced by legal action brought against him by Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Coalition in the high court in Pretoria this week.

There has been growing speculation that Zuma is unhappy with several of the candidates, including Mathatha Tsedu and Michael Markowitz, among others.

Zuma said in a statement on Tuesday morning that he has appointed the new board for a period of five years. The board is made up of Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, Krish Naidoo, Khanyisile Kweyama, John Matisonn, Tsedu, Rachel Kalidass, Markovitz, Bongumusa Makhathini, Victor Rambau, Dinkwanyane Mohuba and Jack Phalane.