The SABC in chaos & crisis: In massive and accelerated meltdown, the utter destruction of the SABC's top governance structure continued today with the resignations of 2 of the last 3 remaining SABC board members - Suzanne Vos and Pippa Green, leaving Claire O'Neil as the lone SABC board member left.
"[It] was the last straw, for me, what appeared to be a contemptuous attitude towards the board. It was very clear that she [Dina Pule, the minister of communications] wanted the SABC board to be dissolved. It is simply impossible for the board of a state-owned entity, such as the SABC, to report to a hostile minister," says Suzanne Vos.
Within just 14 days the embattled SABC - embroiled in its biggest public scandal and and top management meltdown the beleaguered South African Broadcasting Corporation has ever seen - has gone from an SABC board with a chairperson and deputy chairperson and board members - to total destruction.
Following the bitter and acrimonous infighting between dr. Ben Ngubane and Thami Ka Plaatjie as chairperson and deputy chairperson at the SABC with the rest of the board, both eventually quit.
They were fighting with the SABC board over the SABC board's decision to remove the matricless acting chief operating officer (COO) and essay-bee-see enfant terrible Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
Then the SABC board landed in a public spat with the interfering minister of communications Dina Pule. She said Hlaudi Motsoeneng is still the acting COO; the SABC board said the decision "stands".
After this public acrimonious stand-off, the SABC members started resigning en masse: Lumko Mtide, John Danana, Cedric Gina, Desmond Golding, Adv. Cawe Mahlati and Noluthando Gosa. Joining them out the door today: Suzanne Vos and Pippa Green.
The SABC has no governing body; has no chairperson.
The already weakened, tarnished public broadcaster - Africa's last remaining real "public broadcaster" - is more rudderless that ever before, as the biggest crisis it has ever faced is laying bare just how hollowed out, empty and devoid of any real leadership and direction it has become.
