South Africa: SOS still wants action against Ngubane, Mokoetle

The SOS Suport Public Broadcasting Coalition has congratulated the SABC board for reversing the appointment of Phil Molefe as SABC news head, but reiterated its call for action to be taken against board chair Ben Ngubane and CEO Solly Mokoetle for corporate governance breaches, writes Michael Mbambo for journalism.co.za.

In a statement, SOS - previously known as the Save our SABC campaign - says it “is heartened to hear that in line with good corporate governance practices, an interview panel will continue its assessment of candidates for the position of Head of News, and make recommendations to the Board”.

However, the statement said: "It is still imperative that action is taken against the Chair of the SABC Board. SOS still calls on Dr. Ben Ngubane to resign. This is in light of the fact that he can no longer be trusted to lead the SABC." His actions had encouraged the intervention of the minister, which contradicted the SABC's position as a public broadcaster.

SOS also wants to know what action is being taken against Mokoetle.

Ngubane had initially unilaterally decided to appoint Molefe as head of news. And even after the board had protested that this action was illegal, Mokoetle again confirmed Molefe’s appointment, which further deepened the corporate governance crisis at the SABC. 

SOS has also called on the board to investigate the serious allegations of censorship at the SABC and the fallout related to this latest governance saga. Among these is the alleged spiking of radio interviews of certain union members and NGO’s, and the early retirement of the head of radio news.

The SOS Campaign represents a number of trade unions (including Cosatu, Fedusa and Bemawu), a host of NGOs (including Media Monitoring Africa, the Freedom of Expression Institute and Misa-SA), CBOs, industry related bodies, academics and freedom of expression activists.

- June 29, 2010 by Michael Mbambo

.................

Source: www.journalism.co.za/index.php (accessed on 30.06.10)