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In a SHOCKING ANNOUNCEMENT the SABC has just confirmed - from the SABC board - the permanent new, and highliy controversial appointment of Phil Molefe as the South African public broadcaster's head of news.
''The board of directors of the South African Broadcasting Corporation is pleased to confirm the appointment of mr Phil Molefe as the group executive: news and current affairs,'' the SABC says in a just released statement. I can however tell you the SABC board is far from pleased - but there's method to the madness.
The SABC chairperson dr Ben Ngubane and the now-suspended SABC group CEO Solly Mokoetle who did Ngubane's bidding, plunged the SABC into a very public and drawn-out governance crisis when Solly Mokoetle - on dr Ben Ngubane's unilateral orders and blatantly flouting SABC governance policies - ''appointed'' Phil Molefe as the SABC's head of news. The SABC board who is actually supposed to make such an appointment, called Phil Molefe's appointment ''null and void''. Now the SABC board has - after a protacted battle - ''resolved to confirm the appointment of Phil Molefe.''
But here's what's really going on behind the scenes: The SABC board is absolutely convicted and united in their resolve to get rid of both dr Ben Ngubane and Solly Mokoetle after a complete collapse of trust and highly acrimonious, and ongoing power struggles behind the scenes. The SABC board is making and taking the appointment of Phil Molefe as head of news on the chin as further leverage to oust Solly Mokoetle and get dr Ben Ngubane out of the SABC. The SABC board will say that in order to stabilize the beleaguered broadcaster it eventually was in the SABC's best interest to settle this matter and that it was the SABC board who had to fix the mess that dr Ben Ngubane and Solly Mokoetle not only created, but escalated and refused to fix. The ''Phil Molefe Appointment'' now moves from a ''to be continued'' to a ''tick that box'' permanent corporate governance mistake behind the names of both dr Ben Ngubane and Solly Mokoetle . . .a ''battle'' for the SABC board to ''lose'' (yet win) in order to win the eventual war.
