IFP PRESS STATEMENT BY: 
MRS SYBIL SEATON MP
IFP DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP

25th June 2008

The Inkatha Freedom Party will not support the amendment of the Broadcasting Act, as proposed by the ANC in the Communications Portfolio Committee meeting yesterday, said Ms Sybil Seaton MP, today. 

Ms Seaton commented: "This amendment as tabled by the ANC members of the Committee will not solve the problems that arose with the appointment of the current SABC Board. 

"The ANC Alliance has manipulated the selection of the Board of the SABC and thereafter its management since taking over power in 1994. The Inkatha Freedom Party has consistently and strenuously objected to this. 

"The critical problems within the SABC are a result of their being two centres of power in the ANC since its Polokwane Conference.  This is no secret. The pre-Polokwane ANC dictated the selection of the current SABC Board (and before that the current management of the SABC). The post-Polokwane ANC objects to the Board which was imposed on the Portfolio Committee and thereafter Parliament.

 "The attempt to portray the public broadcaster as an independent institution (which it clearly is not) is now exposed for all to see. Giving Parliament a role in the removal of SABC Board members will further damage the SABC's future independent governance and management. 

"Therefore the IFP believes that an outside body should be tasked with appointing the SABC Board, so that those appointed are selected in the public interest and not for the benefit of the ruling party," concluded MRS Seaton.