I've sat and listened through everything the SABC board had to say today before the portfolio committee on communications today in parliament and i would suggest that you have to read some of these.
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On SABC disciplinary cases
''as I speak we have been able to reduce the number of suspensions. I don't think we have more than 10 suspensions and even those that we have are closer to completion. Some of these suspensions are frustrated not by the SABC, but by the people themselves in terms of changing lawyers – especially those high profile cases where people change lawyers and they ask for postponement.''
On the SABC's head of procurement
''A senior advocate has sent a recommendation to the SABC board two months or three months ago which the SABC board accepted that the head of procurement deserves to be dismissed. He's now out of work. He was dismissed through a fair process.
On SABC contracts for international TV content
''we had another series of international content and write-off for R8 293 000 and that's quite a long list of titles of TV shows that we impaired [wrote-off as a loss] at year-end.''
SABC board chairperson dr Ben Ngubane
''There were things that I said in my report which were very unfortunate. Because it was information that was available and to me, that signified disfunctionality in the SABC board. But we are now functional.''
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The functioning of the SABC board
''the SABC board is functioning very well. The four resignations that we've experienced as the SABC board, amid the challenges, we want to make an admission that we indeed had challenges as the SABC board. However we've put it into the past. There have been challenges in the past but we are committed to forging ahead and in turning around the situation.''
The appointment of Phil Molefe as the SABC's new head of news
1. ''As a board we've never had an issue with Phil Molefe as a person.''
2. ''We started the process in May. We had interviews and interviewed the four shortlisted candidates. On that day we couldn't complete the scoring. We met the following week where a discussion took place. We were to go on 3 June 2010 to make a decision but it was unfortunate that before that, an announcement was made publicly that an appointment was made which then brought the issue to the public domain. We continued to say that as a board the matter should continue, the process should continue. On 6 September the SABC board received a recommendation which the SABC board then accepted and appointed Phil Molefe as the head of news and current affairs. There are issues that happened and we think we are looking forward now as a board and we all accept that there might have been mistakes in the past which will not be repeated going forward.''
3. ''the major concern that spilled this matter into the public arena was non-adherance – the announcement that was made before the SABC board could actually make a decision. That was the major concern. We've since relooked at the issue and we've corrected that unfortunate issue.''
On too many managers
''We are looking at the content enterprises structure. The content enterprises structure is huge; it's bloated; there's too many managers. We're looking at that in the organization plan.''
