In an open letter written today and sent to mr Ismail Vadi, the chairperson of the portfolio committee on communications at parliament, as well as to the SABC chairperson dr Ben Ngubane and SABC board members, the Support Public Broacasting Coalition (SOS) says that ''a new date needs to be set urgently to reconvene the hearing into the governance crises at the SABC''.
The public pressure group that represents a vast number of organisations, trade unions, freedom of expression activists, leading academics and film and TV organisations says that a new hearing should be set urgently and that it should be held in the open. ''SOS believes that every day that the the hearings are delayed the governance crisis at the SABC is deepened''. ''An open hearing would serve the debate and public interest,'' says the SOS that writes: ''SOS believes that parliament should publically release all the supporting documentation that was tabled at the closed meeting. A number of these documents are already in the public domain and to ensure a balanced view all documentation should now be released.''
''We can not afford to wait any longer on these issues – the crisis is deepening daily. Because of the divisions within the SABC board between the chairperson and the rest of the SABC board, the SABC is effectively operating without an oversight structure. Also, two board members have now resigned further weakening governance structures. This is an untenable situation.''
''With each drawn-out governance crisis the ability to convince quality candidates to serve as SABC board members is undermined - and the long-term sustainability of the SABC suffers. Hence it is paramount to find a speedy and sensible resolution to the crisis. In short, the SABC board must be empowered and charged with following international best practice as a public broadcaster.''
