Chairperson, the IFP will not support this report, because essentially it is a report with a manipulative party-political motive. The post-Polokwane ANC alliance wants to get rid of this pre-Polokwane ANC alliance SABC board. The issue is very clear; it is one of using Parliament here today in an attempt to set a process in motion to wrench control of the SABC board into new hands. This report has no precedence and no substance in law. This Parliament cannot sack this board, and we all know it.
Late last year, the IFP opposed the recommendation of appointment, by the President, of this Board as currently constituted in both the Portfolio Committee on Communications and in Parliament. Both times the ANC in the portfolio committee and in this House voted down our genuine concerns. We agree that there are serious problems in the SABC. We agree that serious problems exist in both the governance and management of the SABC, but let us be clear with regard to this report: The subject matter of the budget, strategic plan and priorities of the SABC has not been dealt with by the committee, as Mrs Smuts so clearly said, including the very serious allegations of fraud, racism and political interference pertaining to the SABC Sea Point office, which I raised over and over again with no result.
We all know what lies at the heart of these problems, and it is that the SABC has been steadfastly turned by the ANC alliance back into an apartheid- style state broadcaster. The ANC alliance crammed the SABC with party- political appointments and now we are seeing the result. Politicians, and politicians in the ruling party in particular, have let the SABC down and have let the people of South Africa down. The IFP therefore believes that the Broadcasting Act and all other relevant consequential laws must now be urgently amended to allow for the independent selection and appointment of the SABC board and board members to be made beyond party-political control. The selection of the SABC board must be taken away from Parliament. A new procedure for the public selection of the board must now be put into motion. Thank you.