Madam Deputy Speaker, I have listened very carefully to what the opposition members have said. But I think that some of the fundamental questions that they are failing to address are the following. What must the government do or what must this institution, Parliament, do when a board of a public entity fails hopelessly in discharging its responsibilities, is unable to carry out its legal mandate, is locked in conflict with its executive management and is unable to provide effective corporate governance over a public entity? What must we do?
There is a challenge that not only faces the SABC - I want members here to listen very carefully - but also faces SAA at the moment. It is a challenge that faces Iscor and Eskom, with the power failures. It's a challenge that is facing Armscor. A colleague of mine, Mr Benjamin Ntuli, indicated to me last week that the service contract of the CEO of Armscor has still not been signed, after six or seven years at the helm! The question is: What are these boards actually doing to exercise effective corporate governance over public entities that utilise public resources? We have to answer that question. It's pointless saying here that we are threatening the independence of the public broadcaster, in a generalised way, without actually dealing with the challenges facing us.
With respect to the SABC itself, we have recognised - and I think that members of the opposition accept this - that there is a legal vacuum; there is a weakness in the legislation because while provision is made for the removal of a single member, there is no provision that deals with the board as a collective entity.
I don't think it is the intention of the ANC to cripple the board unilaterally. It's not its intention to manipulate it politically. The intention is to strengthen corporate governance and to ensure that the board discharges its fiduciary responsibilities effectively and honestly, and that is not what is happening.
We are gripped in a crisis at the moment; the SABC is facing a crisis. You may have seen a few weeks ago in the media that the current SABC might be facing a deficit of R500 million, and the financial year is not over yet! We haven't had an opportunity as the portfolio committee to summon them here and deal with this particular matter.
You can't have a situation where people overrun their budget by half a billion rand and the board doesn't exercise responsibility. So, those are some of the challenges that face us, and I think we have to deal with these things in an honest and an objective manner.
The portfolio committee and the ANC welcome the fact that the President has returned this Bill. Whilst he has declared the Bill to be not unconstitutional, he has expressed his reservations. We think his reservations are valid. These deal largely with the due process when you institute any proceedings against the board. We think it is a sensible suggestion and we agree with the President.
We think that this is a good example of the executive head exercising independent scrutiny and review of the work of the National Assembly so as to test the constitutionality of its legislative proposals. It also demonstrates to us the value of the principle of separation of powers between the executive and Parliament. So, we want to thank the President for applying his mind and referring the Bill back to us. How have we dealt with ... [Interjections.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, the ANC commends this Bill and we hope that the Assembly will pass it so that this matter can be put to rest and we can deal with the problems at the SABC. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.