Deadline for Zuma to appoint new SABC board

The Presidency denied on Sunday that President Jacob Zuma was trying to manipulate the process of appointing board members to the SABC to ensure that his preferred candidates got the positions.

Pressure is mounting for Zuma to appoint the board members as the EFF has written to him, giving him seven days — expiring on Monday — to make the appointments as recommended by Parliament, failing which that opposition party will instruct its lawyers to take him to court.

The Presidency’s statement was in response to a report in City Press that Zuma wanted to control the SABC and was delaying the announcement of a new board so that he and Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo could appoint their own people to the critical positions of CEO, chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

The dissolved interim SABC board conducted interviews and recommended appointments, but Dlodlo says she is not satisfied with them, saying she wants people with turnaround expertise.

Parliament has recommended to Zuma 12 names for the nonexecutive members of the SABC board, five of whom were on the interim board. Zuma’s only role is to sign off on the recommendations, appoint the board members and choose the chairman and deputy chairman.

DA communications spokeswoman Phumzile van Damme said the public broadcaster’s board appointments were more than a week overdue.

Van Damme said suspicions about Zuma’s intentions were based on his “well-known penchant for capturing independent public institutions. With the SABC being without a board, the president has created conditions ripe for capture.”

Presidential spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga said that the Presidency was concerned about “the rumours and gossip that continued to flourish with regard to the SABC board appointments”.