Picture: SUNDAY TIMES
By Natasha Marrian, 23 November 2015, 06:00
Picture: SUNDAY TIMES
The party says the amendments will give the current and future ministers direct control of the broadcaster, which could compromise its independence.
Alliance partners the African National Congress (ANC), the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions have opposed Ms Muthambi on her position on set-top box control, which she sought to push through Parliament in defiance of ANC policy.
SACP second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila said on Sunday the amendments, which were approved by the Cabinet earlier this month, would see the SABC controlled through the Companies Act, turning it into a "corporate" instead of a public broadcaster. The amendments are set to come before Parliament soon.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the SACP's top leadership, the central executive committee, in Benoni on Sunday.
"The bill will effectively make it a company.… All future ministers will have direct control over the SABC, instead of Parliament. It will no longer have to undergo … gruelling parliamentary oversight," he said. "It could become an instrument of individuals, which is dangerous.
The SABC is an important voice in our democracy," he said.
The bill would mean the SABC would become a "state entity" such as Eskom, instead of a public entity, he added. The SACP takes issue with a part of the amendments that provides for the appointment of a nomination committee to make recommendations to the minister for the appointment of nonexecutive members of the board. It argues that this would "usurp" Parliament's power to recommend members of the board to the president.
Another contentious aspect of the bill for the SACP is that it is set to change the procedure for the removal and resignation of board members and for the appointment of an interim board.
The SACP also spoke out in a media briefing on Sunday about clashes with the ANC. It said it would meet the ANC next month and raise its concern about the party's failure to implement its national general council resolutions, which took a hard-line stance against factionalism. The SACP, however, said irrespective of the challenges in the alliance, it did not believe that the alliance should be aborted; rather that it should be "reconfigured".
The SACP and the ANC Youth League have clashed in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga over differences in leadership preferences in the province. Last week, the SACP in KwaZulu-Natal said perhaps it was time for a "divorce" between the allies.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said on Sunday that the party was concerned about the state of the alliance, but that this did not mean it was "collapsing". He explained that the differences were linked to the "end of term of the president of the ANC", which brought "new stresses and strains" to the alliance.
New emerging factions had simply picked up the anticommunist "posture" of former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema before he was expelled from the ANC.
http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2015/11/23/sacp-opposes-move-to-tighten-sabc-control