Rerun - Gosa seeks SABC seat

A decision to quit the SABC board back in 2005 came back to haunt a member of the National Planning Commission during interviews to fill a vacant seat on the current board.

MPs yesterday grilled Noluthando Gosa about her resignation from the SABC board in December 2005 amid allegations of corruption and her alleged involvement in the canning of video footage containing a booing incident of former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Gosa was asked by MPs why she should be given a second chance.

A seat became available after Clifford Motsepe , who is an ally of expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, had resigned in April.

Gosa said there had been "some misunderstandings" about why she stepped down from the Eddie Funde-led SABC board in 2005. The board was seen as being too close to the administration of then president Thabo Mbeki.

ANC MP Eric Kholwane, who is also chairman of the communications committee, asked Gosa to assure parliament that she would not use the seat to settle "old grudges" if she got it.

"I don't operate in that way anyway. When going to a business environment, it's a professional environment. It's really about work that has to be done," said Gosa, who is also on the board of Investec Asset Management and runs her own investment holdings company.

Gosa said she quit the board because it was not united on how to root out corruption at the SABC.

"The issue that made me leave was there not being a unanimity of purpose in terms of making sure there is no corruption."

Gosa added that she was not interested in manipulating or censoring the news.

"People of South Africa do not need a public broadcaster that seeks to control what they see.

"The news department ought to be independent from any influence," she said.

She said the SABC should be funded by the public purse .

"The public broadcaster has to be funded to a great extent from the national fiscus and I really do not believe that that would in any way compromise its independence. There are safeguards for that," she said.

"Having the SABC solely reliant on advertising again brings in another threat of its independence being compromised by private sector interests," she said.