Dr Ben Ngubane, the SABC chairperson, blatantly chose not to respond and reply to questions put to him on 25 October in an open letter by the Support Public Broadcasting (SOS) Coalition regarding the quagmire of a management mess at South Africa's public broadcaster.
The SOS Coalition, a public pressure group representing a vast number of the biggest industry stakeholders in South Africa's public broadcasting sphere, asked dr Ben Ngubane to please respond with answers by latest 12:00 yesterday, 1 November to a litany of questions.
The SOS Coalition wants answers from dr Ben Ngubane (who the SABC union Bemawu is calling ''a liar'') regarding ''a complete lack of vision, poor corporate governance, ongoing financial mismanagement, and multiple resignations of board members'' among other things. The SOS Coalition also wants to know from dr Ben Ngubane why the SABC is not commissioning new local content and what is going on with inexplicable and non-transparent management appointments.
When TV with Thinus asked the SABC yesterday whether dr Ben Ngubane chose to respond to the SOS Coalition questions, the extremely arrogant answer from the public broadcaster was that ''the communication that you are referring to is between SOS and the chairperson. Any communication regarding the matter will be between the two parties, not through the media''. The SABC's corporate affairs division suggested ''to speak to SOS and ask them''.
Of course I was in touch with SOS several times yesterday, right from the morning until very late last night. Kate Skinner, co-ordinator of the SOS Coalition told me just after 12:00 yesterday that no reply from dr Ben Ngubane has been received. Later in the day the SOS Coalition decided to give dr Ben Ngubane and the SABC until the end of business yesterday to respond.
By the end of business dr Ben Ngubane and the SABC was still silent.
Not silent and not going gently into the good night is the SOS Coalition that will on Thursday afternoon decide how to proceed now with the SABC's highest ranking appointee who's deaf to the voice and plight and questions of South Africa's biggest public pressure group for public broadcasting.
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