Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams deliberately withheld from Parliament that Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni had declined to provide a guarantee to the SABC, the Democratic Alliance has claimed.
The DAs assertion is based on a letter, which the party said it’s seen, from Mboweni to Ndabeni-Abrahams.
“I therefore do not concur to the issuance of the R3.2 billion guarantee,” the letter dated 25 June 2019 purportedly reads, Phumzile Van Damme, DA Shadow Minister of Communications & Digital Technologies said in a statement.
Ndabeni-Abrahams appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Communications on 3 July 2019 and made no mention of the letter, which contained crucial information that not only the public, but Parliament the body to which she is accountable to, ought to have been appraised of, Van Damme added.
The DA said the contents of the letter itself are quite problematic and reveal a “Finance Minister who does not understand the mandate of the Communications Department vis-à-vie the SABC.”
Mboweni states, according to Van Damme, “I want to emphasise the very important role and responsibility that the Department of Communications has to play in the turnaround of the SABC. The SABC is ultimately only an implementing agent for the Department of Communications…”
Van Damme said this is against what the Broadcasting Act stipulates and as further confirmed in a High Court judgment which makes the SABC’s independence clear:
“The Minister, as the representative of the sole shareholder and not a member of the Board, does not have the right to act on behalf of SABC or to manage its business or affairs… The ultimate decision-making power is that of the Board and not the Minister as a sole shareholder…”
“The SABC is NOT an implementing agent for Department of Communications as stated by Mboweni. It is flabbergasting that he does not know this,” Van Damme said.
She then offered the finance minister some advice: “We call on Minister Mboweni to properly appraise himself on the role and mandate of the SABC, and once having done so, continue negotiations regarding funding for the SABC with this knowledge in mind.”
The SABC owes suppliers a reported R1.9bn while it struggles to continue paying salaries.
Its buildings also now pose an occupational health and safety risk after years of no maintenance due to a lack of money.
