Chairperson, the NCOP has removed one of two constitutionally offensive provisions from this Bill. It has removed the redefinition of the appointing authority that would have forced the President of the Republic to appoint the SABC board in consultation with the Speaker.
That provision offended against the doctrine of the separation of powers. It is now gone; so is Mr Thabo Mbeki, which is the real reason for the change. Still, it is a vindication of the position taken here by all opposition parties, and we obviously support the NCOP amendment in this respect.
However, the NCOP has not changed the second constitutionally problematic provision. We will therefore not vote in favour of the Bill in this, its final form. We will vote against it. We will also petition President Motlanthe not to sign it but to send it back to this House because the proposed purge of a duly appointed board without due inquiry is unconstitutional. Mr Blade Nzimande can pontificate as much as he likes on public platforms that the board cannot remain in office for, I quote, "another day". He can terrify the SACP and Members of Parliament into trying, against their better judgement, to pass meaningless motions of no confidence in the board, as they tried again yesterday until we stopped them in their tracks and allowed the board to give what I thought was a very good account of itself on the fiduciary front and in respect of its duties under the charter.
You are not going to be able to evict this board! These are the same Members of Parliament who removed the requirement for due enquiry after the SACP's Mr Malesela Maleka, in a submission, called such due inquiry "a counter-revolutionary attempt to protect bourgeois space with legal concepts".
The proposition that an entire board may be dissolved is intimidatory, as I have said before. It is destructive of the independence without which the SABC cannot protect its editorial staff and the right of the public to be informed. The proposal that this can be done without an inquiry is obviously unconstitutional.
The SACP is already ventilating the names of the five lefties it thinks it is going to install without due process as an interim board in terms of this Bill. This isn't going to happen, Mr Nzimande, not before the election and certainly not after it. [Applause.]