BREAKING. ''We need a public broadcaster than functions competently,'' says new minister Roy Padayachie.

''What we need is a public broadcaster that functions competently,'' says Roy Padayachie, the newly appointed minister of communications who spoke earlier today at his first press conference and also met with the SABC board today before their follow-up appearance in parliament on November 23 to present the SABC's new turnaround-strategy that Roy Padayachie first wanted to see for himself today in private.

The beleaguered South African public broadcaster is mired in debt, mismanagement, corporate governance breaches, fraud, top management infighting, has a suspended group CEO currently in a disciplinary hearing, and has a SABC board which had four members resign due to ongoing, acrimonious power tussles between the board and the board chairperson dr Ben Ngubane.

Roy Padayachie says ''our first priority would be to stabilize the leadership within the SABC and address its financial liquidity problems and guarantee that the SABC will deliver programme content in tune with the needs of the people.'' Roy Padayachie wants to defuse the SABC leadership crisis within the next month before the end of December.

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