Five candidates on short-list to replace Tshabalala on SABC board

Parliament's portfolio committee on Tuesday shortlisted five candidates to fill the position on the SABC board vacated by Ellen Tshabalala.

The shortlisted candidates are former civilian police secretary Jenni Irish-Quobosheane, businessman Keabatswe Modimoeng, attorney Ashwin Trikamjee, academic Ntomizandile Lesame and Saskia Janine Hickey.

Tshabalala resigned in December after the committee found her guilty of misconduct because she had lied about having a BCom degree and post graduate diploma in labour relations.

The committee did not on Tuesday deal with the controversial suspension of SABC board member Hope Zinde as it is waiting for legal opinion on the matter.

The Sunday press reported claims that she was purged for opposing the sale of the SABC's archives to MultiChoice and did not support Motsoeneng's permanent appointment as the broadcaster's operations chief.

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has told the committee the removal by a vote of no-confidence was legitimate, but Moloi-Moropa has asked parliamentary law advisers for an opinion on whether it was in line with the Broadcasting Act.

It is reliably understood that she has given MPs an undertaking to engage the minister should they find that the board had contravened the act and insist that proper procedure be followed.

The Democratic Alliance's Gavin Davis has in a letter to Moloi-Moropa argued that, in terms of the Broadcasting Act, only the president, acting on the advice of the National Assembly, can remove a board member.

The committee is awaiting an answer from the legislature's legal advisers on whether Muthambi was correct when she told the committee last week that the SABC had become an ordinary state-owned enterprise in terms of the Companies Act because it trumped the Broadcasting Act.

The minister used this as justification for changes to the broadcaster's memorandum of incorporation, which have given her sweeping powers to hire and fire the top staff at the SABC.

Moloi-Moropa told Sapa she still expected to receive the legal opinion on this point this week.

A sixth candidate, Lumko Mtimde, failed to meet the requirements because his academic records were not submitted.

ANC members of a sub-committee doing the shortlisting from 97 nominations backed the nomination of Mtimde, a former member of the board as well as CEO of the Media Development and Diversity Agency.

But Davis opposed it because Mtimde had been an outspoken supporter of the statutory media appeals tribunal mooted by the ruling party some five years ago.

In the end, committee chairwoman Joyce Moloi-Moropa held that Mtimde would not be shortlisted because proof of his academic qualifications --a Bachelor of Science degree and post-graduate diploma -- had not reached the committee in time.

Davis asked whether the records had simply not been submitted in time or whether his CV had now become contested because he could not furnish proof at all.

"Because if he does not have those then it raises very serious questions about his previous tenure at the SABC," he added.

Moloi-Moropa said this was not material for the committee's present purposes.

"I would not like to get into the nitty-gritty of the question of previous positions."

Mtimde told Sapa it was not his responsibility to submit the required documents to the committee, but that of the people who had nominated him. He said he had supplied the relevant documents to them, along with his letter of acceptance.

"I knew of five people and organisations who nominated me and I forwarded my details to them. It is not my job to submit the records to Parliament," he said.

"Speak to Parliament. It is not up to me to say why the records are not there," he said.

Mtimde served on the SABC board until 2013, when he resigned along with most of his colleagues after falling out with chairman Ben Ngubane over the appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the acting chief operations officer of the public broadcaster.