SABC board ‘must jump’ ÜGEN VOS
JOHANNESBURG - “Jump, before you are pushed!” the communist bloc told the nine remaining SABC board members yesterday – urging them to stop “embarrassing themselves and their country”. Parliamentary communications chairman Ishmael Vadi stoked the flames by labelling the appointment of interim chairman Ashwin Trikamjee “unlawful,” saying only President Jacob Zuma had the right to hire and fire the SABC top echelon. Vadi added this meant the SABC was currently “technically dysfunctional”, and in effect operating “without a board”. The “notorious nine” are the last holdouts from the board appointed in the dying days of Thabo Mbeki’s administration, after the resignation of chair Khanyi Mkhonza last Thursday. “The current board was thus born with an indelible stain on its legitimacy and ability to represent the interests of all,” said the SACP’s Malesela Maleka. “In just 18 months, they have taken the SABC from modest profitability to financial crisis… with R2 billion blown... R200 million (more) every month.” The Young Communist League (YCL) went further, threatening to have the nine prosecuted for reckless trading, wasteful expenditure and “other crimes” by Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa). It also wants to hold board members personally liable for money “squandered”, and is threatening to blacklist them from “public sector” work. The YCL’s Castro Ngobese demands they resign immediately. If not, they “face the music they have composed for themselves,” he said. Calling the board “incompetent”, “opportunism and self-interest(ed)”, the SACP also cautioned it to “resign or face the consequences” – suggesting that a “dignified exit” trumped dismissal. Ngobese said they are “outraged” and want a board “untainted by intervention by the previous administration.” --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
