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SABC Implodes
Where to now SABC?
Remember the good old 80's when the SABC paid a mint for shows like Dallas, Magnum PI and Knight Rider? Well kiss 'em goodbye and consign them into the irretrievable memory banks of your mind. They will never return, nor will anything remotely resembling entertainment or ungarbled information grace the screens of your Sony within the borders of RSA.
Speaking during the parliamentary portfolio committee meeting yesterday, former SABC board chair, Kanyisiwe Mkonza yesterday admitted that she “sucks" as a leader. Yes you do, oh yes indeed! This is an admission that would have made a refreshing change except that…We already knew that!!! We could have told you so!
The crisis at the SABC has rapidly devolved from a circus, to a zoo and now is in the terminal phase of a full blown equatorial return to deepest Africa. Except they’ve cloaked it under a Western euphemism known as a “portfolio committee.”
LOL, read the report from Timesonline below and tell me you can’t hear the shrill chirps and yackety yack of the deepest green. And take note of the very serious request from a former board member asking in apparent seriousness whether they were entitled to a clothing allowance to attend the hearings taking place. Laugh-out-fucking-loud!
This is not, I repeat NOT, a parody from Hyaibo.com. This serryes business going down in the land of the mentally constipated. Boonhood, she is here brutha!
Mkonza confessed that her “weak leadership skills” led to the financial and management crisis crippling the broadcaster. However, she pointed out that “due to the political climate … the board never had a chance” of successfully carrying out its duties.
Speaking during the parliamentary portfolio committee on communication’s hearing into the dysfunctional SABC board’s fitness to hold office, Mkonza said: “I do agree, I suck as a leader, but this board never had a chance.”
The hearing began last Thursday but, because only 2 of the board’s 12 members — Alision Gilwald and Nadia Bulbulia — turned up, it had to be continued yesterday.
The proceedings were punctuated by drama, with threats of subpoenas being issued, and accusations flying between the board and SABC management. At one point during the theatrics it was suggested that the SABC was “being run like a spaza shop”.
Mkonza complained that her board members had been treated like “fifth-class citizens” since being appointed by former President Thabo Mbeki in December 2007. She said members of the board had not been respected by either the SABC management or the previous portfolio committee.
Mbeki was accused of having filled the board with loyal followers who had used the SABC as his political mouthpiece. The board was also blamed by the ANC, SABC management, civil society and other industry players for the crisis at the broadcaster.
Mkonza has faced a litany of allegations against her during her tenure. These include wasteful expenditure on a full-time bodyguard/driver and employing an outside company to spy on board members and managers. Two weeks ago her leadership skills were found “wanting” by a high court judge.
Yesterday’s proceedings kicked off in farcical fashion as board members steadfastly refused to answer questions and participate saying “any inquiry in such circumstances … will not be fair”.
Eight of them, in a written statement read out by former SABC deputy chair Christine Qunta, said they had been “significantly undermined” — especially by disruptive factions within management — and were concerned about the “fairness and objectivity” of the inquiry.
Qunta said there were “procedural and substantive flaws” in the process.
“We do not know why we are here … we cannot participate in this,” she said to the incredulity of the portfolio committee.
Portfolio committee member Johnny De Lange urged the board members not to make a “farce” of a constitutionally constituted inquiry — especially since there was such a “serious corporate meltdown” at the SABC.
“We must bring this matter to finalisation one way or another,” he said, adding that the members could even be subpoenaed to testify. In the afternoon session, most board members began to reveal the problems they had encountered since their appointment. They said the broadcaster had been facing a R600-million deficit when they took office and said attempts to address the financial crisis had received little support from management.
But members of the SABC’s management team accused the board and its members of having undermined them, leaking confidential information to the media and making questionable financial decisions — such as expanding the broadcaster’s news operations when it was not financially feasible.
Head of group strategy, Sipho Sithole, said management had, as early as March last year, requested a meeting with the board to resolve growing corporate governance problems. Sithole said the board had been “arrogant, rude and disrespectful” and had “never committed to having a good working relationship”.
Sithole, who sits on several boards, said he had never experienced such flouting of corporate governance regulations. Suspended SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu told the hearing the crisis was not simply a financial one but a “leadership one”.
“Where else in the world or in the corporate environment do you see a CEO being suspended at 1.40am,” he asked in reference to his initial suspension. He said the two court judgments exonerating him had been reason enough to dissolve the board because they demonstrated that the board was not fulfilling its fiduciary duties.
“Please, if we are talking about the public interest the committee must act now. Not one day more must continue with this crisis. Right now the appeal is to rescue an institution which is sinking.”
Board members Bheki Khumalo, Desmond Golding and Andile Mbeki also admitted that the situation was “untenable” and that the centre had “fallen out”.
Khumalo said management and the board needed to start working together to arrest the decline of the SABC.
“I don’t think our former CEO was treated fairly by us and this board,” he said.
But Gloria Serobe said problems had already existed when the board took office.
Yesterday’s proceedings ended with Pansy Tlakula asking if she and other members of the board were entitled to a clothing allowance, since the committee had requested that they attend today’s hearings.
Her request, which was not a joke, was politely dismissed by Ismael Vadi, the chair of the portfolio committee on communication.
SABC Implodes
Where to now SABC?
Remember the good old 80's when the SABC paid a mint for shows like Dallas, Magnum PI and Knight Rider? Well kiss 'em goodbye and consign them into the irretrievable memory banks of your mind. They will never return, nor will anything remotely resembling entertainment or ungarbled information grace the screens of your Sony within the borders of RSA.
Speaking during the parliamentary portfolio committee meeting yesterday, former SABC board chair, Kanyisiwe Mkonza yesterday admitted that she “sucks" as a leader. Yes you do, oh yes indeed! This is an admission that would have made a refreshing change except that…We already knew that!!! We could have told you so!
The crisis at the SABC has rapidly devolved from a circus, to a zoo and now is in the terminal phase of a full blown equatorial return to deepest Africa. Except they’ve cloaked it under a Western euphemism known as a “portfolio committee.”
LOL, read the report from Timesonline below and tell me you can’t hear the shrill chirps and yackety yack of the deepest green. And take note of the very serious request from a former board member asking in apparent seriousness whether they were entitled to a clothing allowance to attend the hearings taking place. Laugh-out-fucking-loud!
This is not, I repeat NOT, a parody from Hyaibo.com. This serryes business going down in the land of the mentally constipated. Boonhood, she is here brutha!
Mkonza confessed that her “weak leadership skills” led to the financial and management crisis crippling the broadcaster. However, she pointed out that “due to the political climate … the board never had a chance” of successfully carrying out its duties.
Speaking during the parliamentary portfolio committee on communication’s hearing into the dysfunctional SABC board’s fitness to hold office, Mkonza said: “I do agree, I suck as a leader, but this board never had a chance.”
The hearing began last Thursday but, because only 2 of the board’s 12 members — Alision Gilwald and Nadia Bulbulia — turned up, it had to be continued yesterday.
The proceedings were punctuated by drama, with threats of subpoenas being issued, and accusations flying between the board and SABC management. At one point during the theatrics it was suggested that the SABC was “being run like a spaza shop”.
Mkonza complained that her board members had been treated like “fifth-class citizens” since being appointed by former President Thabo Mbeki in December 2007. She said members of the board had not been respected by either the SABC management or the previous portfolio committee.
Mbeki was accused of having filled the board with loyal followers who had used the SABC as his political mouthpiece. The board was also blamed by the ANC, SABC management, civil society and other industry players for the crisis at the broadcaster.
Mkonza has faced a litany of allegations against her during her tenure. These include wasteful expenditure on a full-time bodyguard/driver and employing an outside company to spy on board members and managers. Two weeks ago her leadership skills were found “wanting” by a high court judge.
Yesterday’s proceedings kicked off in farcical fashion as board members steadfastly refused to answer questions and participate saying “any inquiry in such circumstances … will not be fair”.
Eight of them, in a written statement read out by former SABC deputy chair Christine Qunta, said they had been “significantly undermined” — especially by disruptive factions within management — and were concerned about the “fairness and objectivity” of the inquiry.
Qunta said there were “procedural and substantive flaws” in the process.
“We do not know why we are here … we cannot participate in this,” she said to the incredulity of the portfolio committee.
Portfolio committee member Johnny De Lange urged the board members not to make a “farce” of a constitutionally constituted inquiry — especially since there was such a “serious corporate meltdown” at the SABC.
“We must bring this matter to finalisation one way or another,” he said, adding that the members could even be subpoenaed to testify. In the afternoon session, most board members began to reveal the problems they had encountered since their appointment. They said the broadcaster had been facing a R600-million deficit when they took office and said attempts to address the financial crisis had received little support from management.
But members of the SABC’s management team accused the board and its members of having undermined them, leaking confidential information to the media and making questionable financial decisions — such as expanding the broadcaster’s news operations when it was not financially feasible.
Head of group strategy, Sipho Sithole, said management had, as early as March last year, requested a meeting with the board to resolve growing corporate governance problems. Sithole said the board had been “arrogant, rude and disrespectful” and had “never committed to having a good working relationship”.
Sithole, who sits on several boards, said he had never experienced such flouting of corporate governance regulations. Suspended SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu told the hearing the crisis was not simply a financial one but a “leadership one”.
“Where else in the world or in the corporate environment do you see a CEO being suspended at 1.40am,” he asked in reference to his initial suspension. He said the two court judgments exonerating him had been reason enough to dissolve the board because they demonstrated that the board was not fulfilling its fiduciary duties.
“Please, if we are talking about the public interest the committee must act now. Not one day more must continue with this crisis. Right now the appeal is to rescue an institution which is sinking.”
Board members Bheki Khumalo, Desmond Golding and Andile Mbeki also admitted that the situation was “untenable” and that the centre had “fallen out”.
Khumalo said management and the board needed to start working together to arrest the decline of the SABC.
“I don’t think our former CEO was treated fairly by us and this board,” he said.
But Gloria Serobe said problems had already existed when the board took office.
Yesterday’s proceedings ended with Pansy Tlakula asking if she and other members of the board were entitled to a clothing allowance, since the committee had requested that they attend today’s hearings.
Her request, which was not a joke, was politely dismissed by Ismael Vadi, the chair of the portfolio committee on communication.
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