(Subcommittee) Shortlisting of candidates for the MDDA Board vacancies

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed the subcommittee noting the subcommittee was established by the National Assembly to deal with a specific matter.

The Chairperson apologised for the delay in starting the meeting. He took participants through the policy for virtual meetings – all microphones were to be muted when not speaking and the chat function was to be used for points of order.

The subcommittee will be looking at the shortlisting process for candidates to interview to fill vacancies on the board of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA). Last week when discussing the programme, the subcommittee agreed on shortlisting five candidates per vacancy – there were two vacancies on the MDDA board so the committee would be shortlisting ten candidates.

The Chairperson reminded Members to consider young people, gender equity and racial demographics when shortlisting.  

Political parties will propose ten names and Members would look for commonality across the names nominated by the parties. The shortlist will be reached through consensus as opposed to merely voting. Members should persuade and engage each other to reach the shortlist.

A letter dated 26 May 2020 was received from the Minister in the Presidency informing the National Assembly of the expiry of terms of office of Dr Nombeko Mbava and Ms Martina Della-Togna on the board of the MDDA in October 2020. The National Assembly was requested to initiate the process to fill the vacancies in terms of the MMDA Act, 2002 (Act No 14 of 2002).

The Chairperson asked if all Members received their packages and links to documentation and CVs of all candidates.

The Chairperson called on Members to propose their names.

Mr Z Mbhele (DA) expressed that he did not have a definite list to contribute but will engage with the names proposed by the other Members of the subcommittee.

Ms N Khubheka (ANC) proposed her list of candidates which were numbers 1,6,3,11,19,9,44,51,28,18,23

Mr V Pambo (EFF) also did not have a definite list to contribute but said he would engage with the names proposed by the other Members of the subcommittee at the interview stage.

Ms Z Majozi (IFP) proposed her list of candidates which were numbers 3, 9, 51, 28,6,1,11,44

Mr Mbhele picked up divergences in the proposed list of names. He proposed the following candidate numbers 6, 11,14,23,28,29,37,56.

The Chairperson requested the names of the proposed candidates be flighted for deliberation.

1 Mr Adendorf, Lionel

6 Ms Della Togna, Martina

11  Ms Koetsie, Blaise

19 Mr Mashangone, Phosa

9 Ryland, Fisher

44 Mr Seeco, Louis

51 Prof Tyali, Siyasanga

28 Ms Mohlala, Carol

18 Ms Maharaj, Nalini

14 Ms Lefothane, Keletso

23 Dr Mbava, Nombeko

37 Ms Nkoala, Sisanda

29 Ms Mokubung, Amantle

56 Ms Vundla, Kathleen

3 Mr Buku, Luzuko

Masimane, Lesiba

Common numbers between parties were 3,1,6,23,28,44,9,11,19,51,18, and Masimane Lesiba

The Chairperson asked for deliberations on the remaining shortlisted candidates. He recommended retaining all 12 names which were common in the absence of Ms Majozi, who was struggling with network issues. Since she could not be part of the deliberations, it was difficult to know who her priority candidates were. The Chairperson recommended all 12 candidates be shortlisted for interview, as this may assist in addressing racial, gender and disability inclusivity together with skills.

Mr Mbhele flagged that a significant number of candidates were in common between the ANC and IFP. He had some reservations about some candidates but he did not want to add too much weight to this as the interview stage was where the substantive issues came to light. He said he could agree to the shortlist if another candidate was added – he motivated for candidate 29 because of her qualifications and work experience around marketing communication and digital marketing with Harambee. Mr Mbhele said he had some basic experience and interaction with the organisation which was very successful in the area of resource deployment, marketing and communications for fundraising and resource mobilisation in the civic society arena. Members will recall that a strong point was made in their engagements with the MDDA that the entity needs to innovate and make progress in becoming more self-sustaining and developing income and revenue streams for itself. Based on those surface level things he could pick up from the CV, he strongly motivated for candidate 29 because of the potential value she may bring to the MDDA board to innovate and develop self-sustaining income streams.

Ms Khubheka supported the list of 12 candidates noting the eight names in common with the IFP. She also accepted the inclusion of candidate 29. The mandate of the Committee is to build the MDDA board to greater heights and assist the board with the skills that are relevant for it to operate.

Ms P Faku (ANC) supported the shortlist of 12 candidates with the addition of candidate 29.

Mr T Gumbu (ANC) expressed he had connectivity problems which made it hard for him to follow the meeting’s deliberations so he could not make a submission.

The Chairperson said the challenge the subcommittee would face could be which candidate to eliminate. It did no harm to accept the 12 candidates with the addition of candidate 29, and let the selection process take place after the interviews i.e. who to eliminate.

The Chairperson recommended the subcommittee accept all 13 candidates.

Members agreed on shortlisting 13 candidates.  

Mr Mbhele supported the 13 candidate list and thanked Members for the inclusion of candidate 29

The final list of shortlisted candidates:

1. Ms Martina Della-Togna (6)
2. Dr Nombeko Mbava (23)
3. Ms Carol Mohlala (28)
4. Mr Luzuko Buku (3)
5. Ms Blaise Koetsie(11)
6. Mr Lionel Adendorf(1)
7. Mr Louis Seeco(44)
8. Mr Ryland Fisher(9)
9. Mr Phosa Mashangoane(19)
10. Prof Siyasanga Tyali(51)
11. Ms Nalini Maharaj(18)
12. Mr Masimene Lesiba
13. Ms Amantle Mokubung(29)

The Committee would meet tomorrow to adopt its report on the shortlist.

The meeting was adjourned