SECTOR 3

Some panellists also felt that ICASA councillors are subjected to commercial
pressure, particularly from the dominant satellite subscription services company
Multichoice.
“The councillors get a lot of benefits, including trips overseas, and this gives
Multichoice an unfair advantage in the sector. Such benefits should be monitored.”

Scores:
Individual scores:
1

Country does not meet indicator

2

Country meets only a few aspects of indicator

3

Country meets some aspects of indicator

4

Country meets most aspects of indicator

5

Country meets all aspects of the indicator

Average score:

3.6 (2010: 2.6; 2008: 4.1; 2006: 4.0)

3.4 The state/public broadcaster is accountable to the
public through a board representative of society at
large and selected in an independent, open and transparent manner.
At the time of the AMB, the SABC had an interim board, which was not
appointed through a public process, although Parliament is expected to begin
a public process to invite people to serve on a permanent board. The interim
board was endorsed in April 2013 by President Zuma after being recommended
by Parliament. In March 2013 Parliament adopted a resolution to dissolve the
board after the president accepted the resignation of most members of that
board, including the chairperson, in the wake of ongoing turmoil at the national
broadcaster. This was the second SABC board to have collapsed within five years.
It followed a dispute between chairperson Ben Ngubane, who is known to be
a close friend of Zuma’s, and the rest of the board when Ngubane reinstated
former acting chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and reappointed him
as the group executive of stakeholder relations and provinces, despite the prior
resolution of the board to relieve Motsoeneng of his responsibilities.
The SABC is run as a proprietary limited (Pty Ltd) company, with government
as the only shareholder. According to the Broadcasting Act, the board should
comprise of 12 non-executive members, as well as the group chief executive
officer, the chief operations officer and the chief financial officer. The nonexecutive members are appointed by the president “on advice of the National

AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SOUTH AFRICA 2013

51

Select target paragraph3