PARLIAMENT'S communications committee has agreed to make the nominations process for a new SABC board more transparent by making the candidates’ curricula vitae available to the public, writes Linda Ensor in Business Day.
They were due to be posted on the parliamentary website.
The decision follows a call for the curricula vitae and motivations of the candidates to be made public by the Save our SABC Coalition, a group comprising the Congress of South African Trade Unions and nongovernmental groups.
The African National Congress was opposed to making the curricula vitae public before the interviews, saying this would be unfair to the nominees. But opposition parties agreed that public access would enhance transparency.
Congress of the People MP Juli Kilian said there was no way the coalition could, as it requested, be involved in deciding on the final list as this was the prerogative of Parliament.
Yesterday it emerged that two nominees for the board had withdrawn from the parliamentary selection process and one has been added, leaving 30 candidates for the 12 directorships.
Political analyst Frederi k van Zyl Slabbert told Parliament’s communications committee he would not be available as he planned to retire and spend most of his time in Swaziland. The board of directors of the company for which businessman Michael Louis works and co- owns did not endorse his nomination for business reasons.
Another nominee, Felleng Sekha, who was agreed to by the committee but mistakenly left off the final list, was placed back on it, while Zola Fihlani is likely to have jeopardised his chances by not turning up for the interview and providing no excuse.
The three days of interviews by the committee began yesterday with former Competition Tribunal chairman Dave Lewis. Others interviewed included former SABC employees Haroun Moolla, Kenneth Herold and David Niddrie, a nominee of the South African Communist Party.
Also interviewed were a former South African ambassador to France, Barbara Masekela, and Nkomotane Motsepe.
Click here to read the full report, posted on Business Day's website.
