Legal pressure on Zuma increases over SABC board

Application to hold president to constitution

APPARENT delays by President Jacob Zuma to appoint a SABC board have prompted legal action.

Yesterday, two organisations – Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition ( SOS) – filed a joint urgent application in the High Court in Johannesburg demanding Zuma appoint a permanent SABC board within 48 hours.

“It is declared that the president’s failure to appoint or and undue delay in appointing the fifth to sixth respondents as non-executive members of the SABC board is unlawful, unconstitutional and valid,” the MMA and SOS argue in their court papers.

In their founding affidavits, they detailed their various communication to Zuma raising their concerns about the apparent delays regarding the appointment of a board. MMA first wrote on October 5.

When Zuma did not respond, MMA wrote another letter expressing concern.

The Saturday Star reported last week that part of the reason Zuma was allegedly stalling on the appointment of the board was because he did not trust the interim board chairperson, Khanyisile Kweyama, and the deputy chairperson, Mathatha Tsedu.

While Zuma might be mulling over which names to drop from the interim board, the MMA said the constitution made it clear “the president is to appoint the 12 non-executive members “on the advice of the National Assembly”.

SOS’s Dudutsang Makuse concurred: “The president has no discretion or power to refuse to appoint the persons identified by the National Assembly or to delay doing so… There’s no basis in law for the president’s refusal to appoint the selected non-executive members, or for his delay in doing so.”

The organisations expressed their fear that without a board, the cash-strapped public broadcaster might slide into a further crisis.

In his response to MMA, through his legal unit, Zuma said he was considering the matter. He wrote to the MMA on Monday, saying the Department of Communications had submitted all the necessary information on October 6 to enable him to finalise the appointments of the board.

The two organisations have also included in their court papers former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “When Ethics and Governance Fails” report on the SABC and the letter from the SABC 8 in which they raised concerns about the possibility of a recapture of the public broadcaster.

They have given Zuma staggered deadlines to respond to their legal challenge. Should the president not appoint the board by Monday, he will have to file notice of intention to oppose the application by 5pm on that day.

Ayanda Dlodlo