IFP MEDIA STATEMENT BY: 
SUZANNE VOS MP
IFP SPOKESPERSON ON COMMUNICATIONS

PARLIAMENT, CAPE TOWN: 22nd April 2008

Unlike the ANC MPs in the Portfolio Committee on Communications in Parliament, the Inkatha Freedom Party did not support the nomination of certain persons to the current SABC Board. 

Unlike the entire Parliamentary Caucus of the ANC, the Inkatha Freedom Party thereafter did not vote, in Parliament, for the SABC Board as it is now constituted. The IFP explained to Parliament why it did not believe, as a collective, the nominations met the criteria set down in the Broadcasting Act and why it objected, specifically, to the inclusion of certain individuals. 

Unlike the ANC, the IFP objected to Ms Gloria Tomatoe Serobe telling the Portfolio Committee that she did not know who had nominated her (hiding the fact that this person worked in Presidency) even though it was later revealed that she knew exactly who had nominated her. Unlike the ANC, the IFP presented a Motion to Parliament calling for Ms Serobe's utterances and denial to the Portfolio Committee to be investigated. The ANC voted against the Motion. 

It is now common knowledge that, pre-Polokwane, the ANC MPs in the Portfolio Committee and in Parliament were forced by their political masters in Luthuli House to vote for the persons, as a collective, who now serve as SABC Board members. It was as clear at that time as it is now that all MPs in the Portfolio Committee (both majority party and Opposition) all agreed that the names of certain nominees should not be supported and most certainly should not be put forward to Parliament. 

Now, post-Polokwane, the very ANC MPs who voted, in the Portfolio Committee and in Parliament, for the current SABC Board are calling for the resignation of the Board or, at least, the removal of the very persons now serving as Board members that they didn't want in the first place! 

The IFP believes that this is an abuse of Parliament and, furthermore, a thuggish and blatant attempt to install an SABC Board amenable to the political diktats of the new ANC leadership. Mr Khotso Khumalo MP, the spokesperson of the ANC Parliamentary Caucus and the ANC Whip in the Portfolio Committee is now being quoted as saying that the Board was an "embarrassment" and that the ANC wanted the entire Board to resign or, at least, the Board Members that the ANC did not want in the first place.   

This is a flagrant abuse of power. It is wrong.