JZ passes on SABC candidates

President Jacob Zuma missed the deadline for appointing an SABC chief operating officer because none of the candidates "met expectations", Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said on Thursday.

"The candidates did not have the level of experience that made one comfortable. They were good, but they did not meet my expectations," Dlodlo told reporters in Johannesburg.

Dlodlo slammed the media "narrative" that the public broadcaster's interim board had implied the SABC was "inherently reckless and susceptible to corruption".

"There has not been recklessness. There has been no corruption," she said.

Acting SABC CEO Nomsa Philiso acknowledged that the public broadcaster's funding model was not working.

"The truth of the matter is that the advertising model is not just affecting the SABC. The pie is shrinking for other entities as well," Philiso said.

She said the broadcaster was reviewing its funding model, which is heavily reliant on advertising.

"We are looking at other models, which relate more to how we exploit our content
and how we play in the digital space," Philiso said.

Parliament's portfolio committee on communications interviewed 34 candidates and submitted a list of 12 names to the president for approval and appointment as nonexecutive members of the board on September 5.

Zuma had 21 days to ratify the list, but according to a report in the Sunday Times he has been reluctant to sign off on the names because he does not trust some of the candidates.

Zuma's spokesman, Bongani Ngqulunga, said the president was "still applying his mind".