Needed: an injection of integrity and courage

placed in front of them and to apply an inquiring mind to such information.

Board members are required to act for a proper purpose and not to act illegally, dishonestly or outside their powers.

So why is it so difficult to rein in the SABC?

The primary challenge at the SABC is the breakdown of governance, which opens up a large space for conduct bordering on criminality. When an individual can appropriate substantial amounts of taxpayer money from the broadcaster with impunity and without proper procedures being followed, one is no longer dealing with inadequate governance.

Many of us who made ourselves available to serve on the SABC board in 2013 did so at the behest of the ANC, with the sole purpose of fixing the SABC.

Last month’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruling effectively terminated Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s employment with the SABC. His subsequent “employment” as group executive of corporate affairs is at variance with the employment policies and practices of the SABC and is unlawful. Motsoeneng is trespassing at the SABC — a national key point.

How can one go about trying to fix the SABC?

A starting point would be to choose nonexecutive board members whose ethics and integrity are beyond reproach RESIGNED: Krish Naidoo and are strong enough to hold the SABC executives to account and prevent them from usurping the board’s authority.

Board members and SABC executives should submit to lifestyle audits.

This is a sure way of restoring public confidence in the organisation and eliminating any perception that SABC leaders have conflated their material interest with their fiduciary responsibilities.

The SABC should install an oversight mechanism to ensure that its strong compliance and control mechanisms in the business transacting environment are adhered to in line with the constitution.

Functioning within the rule of law should enjoin the SABC to take into consideration the Bill of Rights and constitution, the legislative framework and the ethical standards contained in our law and expounded by our courts from time to time.

To strengthen the ethical foundation of the broadcaster, consideration should be given to the establishment of an integrity commissioner at the SABC, along the same lines as the offices established in the Gauteng provincial government and the City of Johannesburg.

These structural adjustments to the functioning of the SABC would go a long way to stabilising the SABC and ensuring that it is governable.

The SABC is unique in that it permeates practically every facet of our lives — political, social, economic, sport, cultural and religious.

The SABC is wholly owned by the state and is financed by advertising revenue, licence fees and the taxpayer. Hence, how we manage the SABC (our own funds) offers a dipstick to the investment community — domestic and international — to predict South Africa’s eventual status as a weak, failing or strong state.

The stand that I have taken is not about looking out for another Tshirt.

Nor is it about Motsoeneng or SABC chairman Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe.

It is about jealously safeguarding our constitutional democracy, which sits precariously on the sacrifices made by thousands of comrades who were exiled, imprisoned, maimed, bludgeoned to death and hanged.

Naidoo is an ANC legal adviser and former SABC board member. He writes in his personal capacity. The full version of his article is at timeslive.co.za