MPs, minister, square up over digital TV board's implosion

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Roy Padayachie is on a collision course with parliament after the communications portfolio committee demanded the axing of the board which was supposed to oversee the switch to digital TV.

On Thursday the committee passed a vote of no confidence in the board of the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA). But the day before, Padayachie had extended the board's term for another year.

Padayachie told the Sunday Times he had not formally received the committee's recommendation but was aware of it.

"We can't wipe away the whole board," he said. "There is a forensic audit under way ordered by the board; there are senior officials suspended, therefore they cannot all go before the job is complete.

"The other board members have to work with the remaining staff members as there are projects to be completed."

Padayachie had decided to retain Shaun Pather, Vusi Ngcobo and Bheki Maduna, but the chairman of the board, Louis Mohlaudi, resigned for personal reasons.

The minister confirmed Mohlaudi's departure but said it was necessary for the other members to remain in charge.

The parliamentary committee's loss of confidence in the board stemmed from the collapse of corporate and financial governance at the agency - and its failure to speed up the migration from analogue to digital television. The committee blamed this meltdown on factional fighting on the board.

The committee was shocked to discover the USAADA board had spent R1.7-million hiring a technical adviser for six months to help sort out the financial management at the agency.

MP Eric Kholwane said the expensive contract showed that, thanks to power struggles, the board had failed to fulfil its fiduciary duties - its responsibility to act to protect the money or property of others.

"You have to be relieved of your duties. You decided to ... fight among yourself instead of focusing on the board, and the consequence of that is that your projects did not go off the ground," said Kholwane.

"Your egos have taken over your fiduciary responsibilities as a board."

The ANC MP Kholwane said his committee would not back down on its decision.

" I'll assume that [Padayachie] will approach us for discussion and understand why we said what we said and probably he will indicate why he has done what he has done. "But that will not change our recommendation in any way, even if we engage in a discussion ..."

Natasha Michaels, a DA MP, said the minister couldn't justify keeping the agency's board.

"There has to be a whole new board, so this is the perfect example of when the minister has to listen to the committee, because we've performed our oversight," she said.