Both dr Ben Ngubane and Thami ka Plaatjie plunged the beleaguered South African public broadcaster into its biggest top executive and top management crisis ever when they unilaterally tried to "reappoint" the matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the acting chief operating officer (COO) at the SABC three days after the rest of the SABC board removed Hlaudi Motsoeneng from the position.
The resignation of dr. Ben Ngubane as well as the resignation of Thami Ka Plaatjie over the weekend comes amidst unbearable stress and conflict on SABC board level, where "corporate governance has disintegrated completely," according to statements made last week by parliament.
Parliament's portfolio committee on communications, the body tasked with oversight of the SABC last week said that "anarchy" was reigning at the highest level at the SABC and that "Auckland Park was on fire".
Dr. Ben Ngubane quitting the SABC, followed by the resignation letter of Thami Ka Plaatjie follows the severly destructive infighting at the highest executive and management levels of the beleaguered SABC which the past few years remained mired in scandal, corruption, allegations of scandal and the one leaderless management blunder after another.
Parliament's portfolio committee on communications has been asked by several political parties as well as civil society public pressure groups such as the SOS Coalition, a broad-based public interest group supporting public broadcasting, to have an emergency meeting with and about the SABC in the coming week to save the struggling broadcaster where the leadership structure is disintegrating from the very top.
Now, with both dr. Ben Ngubane and Thami Ka Plaatjie gone, the SOS Coalition calls the situation at the SABC "desperate".
The SABC didn't immediately respond to a media enquiry made on Sunday night.
