Delays in the vetting of candidates of the SABC board have led to a vacuum in the leadership of the public broadcaster.
The standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) was compelled on Wednesday to adjourn its hearing with the SABC due to the absence of the broadcaster’s board as the accounting authority.
The term of office for the previous SABC board expired on October 15 and the new board has not been appointed due to delays in the vetting of candidates by the State Security Agency (SSA).
Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the law made provision that the group chief executive be designated as the accounting authority in the absence of the board.
“Scopa also wants to emphasise the impact of the delays in the vetting process by the SSA, which is negatively affecting the governance in the public sector. The vetting issue in its entirety poses a serious challenge to the architecture of oversight and good governance in this country,” Hlengwa said.
“This impasse with the SSA is creating a favourable environment for people to be in office when they should not be, something that poses a risk to financial management.”
Scopa had structured the hearing to deal with the annual report, financial statements, investigations, as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditures for the 2021/22 financial year.
It would have been irregular for Scopa to proceed with the hearing in the absence of the board, Hlengwa said, adding that the committee would await the processes of regularising the SABC leadership in order to close the vacuum that is there as a result of the absence of the board.
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