The fiasco surrounding the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has resulted in communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri's budget speech to Parliament being postponed by almost a month.
Matsepe-Casaburri will now present her budget to Parliament on 3 June, rather than on the scheduled 13 May. This is because the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has not seen and approved the budgets and strategies of the SABC and the International Marketing Council (IMC).
On 30 April, the African National Congress members of the communications committee refused to entertain the SABC's strategy and budget. Instead, they proposed a motion of no confidence in the board and that it be taken to the national assembly for debate.
Subsequently, the broadcaster's board suspended CEO Dali Mpofu on Wednesday, after he suspended the head of its news service Snuki Zikalala.
The committee also refused to have the IMC's strategy and budget presented to it, because the entity's entire board was not present. This organisation falls under the auspices of the Presidency, rather than that of the Department of Communications.
IMC CEO Yvonne Johnston abruptly departed at the end of April, due to a "breakdown in relations [between Johnston] and the Government Communications and Information Service (GCIS)". The IMC falls within the GCIS ambit, which in turn reports to minister of the presidency Essop Pahad.
Yesterday, during a parliamentary media briefing, Matsepe-Casaburri said there was not much she could do about the SABC's current situation.
"The law does not give the minister [of communications] much power to intervene. The SABC's board is a parliamentary process and this must run its course," she said.
Department of Communications director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole said the delay in the budget speech should not have any real impact on the current operations of other organisations that fall within the department's portfolio.
"It will be business as usual for these organisations," she said.
Chairman of the communications committee Ismail Vadi said the delay was to accommodate the SABC's presentation of its strategy, which first has to be seen by the committee. This is now scheduled to happen on Tuesday, 27 May.
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