Broadcasting Amendment Bill paves the way for the ANC’s complete takeover of the SABC

On Friday the Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, tabled a Bill that will give the ANC-government complete control over the public broadcaster, the SABC.

The Bill - the Broadcasting Amendment Bill- was tabled after the National Assembly had risen, presumably, with hopes that it will go unnoticed.

Of primary concern, the Bill will remove Parliament’s role in the appointment of the SABC's non-executive board members.

The President will now appoint non-executive members of the board on the advice of the Minister, not Parliament. The Minister will be advised by a “nominating committee” she appoints herself.

The Bill will also reduce the number of the non-executive board members from 12 to 9; reduce the qourum from 9 to 7; and specifies a new procedure for their re-appointment, removal and resignation of non-executive board members.

The Broadcasting Amendment Bill is, quite simply, bad news for South Africa’s democracy.

It will see the last vestige of independence removed from the SABC, paving the way for it to become a ANC-government propaganda tool under the control of Minister Muthambi.

Along with the SABC Memorandum of Incorporation secretly signed by Muthambi in September last year, which gives the Minister of Communications the right to usurp the board’s powers reducing it to a mere rubber stamp, the Bill will give the ANC complete control over the SABC.

The DA will use every mechanism available to it to make sure that it does not become law in order to protect the independence of the public broadcaster.

For South Africa’s hard-won democracy to thrive, it is imperative that the country has a public broadcaster that is independent of government, free from political interference and presents news that is an accurate representation of conditions in South Africa.

In fact, the Constitution requires that South Africa’s broadcasting system be in the public interest, to ensure fairness and a diversity of views broadly representing South African society.

Any machinations to remove the independence of the SABC must be viewed as not only undemocratic, but also possibly, unconstitutional. 

The DA will vehemently oppose this Bill for the benefit of all South Africans who have a right to impartial news, not ANC good stories and propaganda.

Statement issued by Phumzile Van Damme MP, DA Shadow Minister of Communications