On Wednesday, the embarrassed Faith Muthambi squirmed after she denied in parliament that the SABC was in crisis - only to be told that the ANC's new policy documents state that the SABC, riddled in crises, reflects a lack of leadership, and that those responsible for it are not being held to account.
"The SABC is not in crisis, you know it very well, it's not at all," Faith Muthambi told parliament on Wednesday. "I can assure you, SABC is on the right course, you know that, you know it very well that it's on the right course and it's delivering its public service mandate as expected."
Faith Muthambi appeared clueless and in denial about the state of the SABC according to the ANC - and contradicted her own political party as minister of communications.
The ANC's National General Council (NGC) latest discussion document on the SABC explicitly states: "The series of crises [plural] at the SABC reflect a lack of leadership, lack of accountability and poor management."
"In confronting the crises more emphasis has been placed on reporting process without a corresponding attention to holding those responsible to account for the financial and organisational maladministration that has brought the public broadcasting institution into crisis".
"The ABC says the SABC is in crisis as a result of leadership failure, while Faith Muthambi says there is no crisis," says Gavin Davis, the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's member of parliament and a member of parliament's portfolio committee on communications.
"It is quite clear that many in the ANC are deeply embarrassed about the state of the SABC, not to mention Hlaudi Motsoeneng's [SABC chief operating officer] uncanny ability to bring the SABC into disrepute whenever he opens his mouth," says Gavin Davis.
"Faith Muthambi, on the other hand, is quite happy to let Hlaudi Motsoeneng continue wrecking our public broadcaster," says Gavin Davis.
