Cape Town – Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies has reportedly welcomed the legal opinion provided this week, that President Cyril Ramaphosa acted “unlawfully” when he wrote a letter to the National Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, seeking clarity on the three additional names to the list of SABC Board candidates.
According to SABC, Parliament’s legal adviser Andile Tetyane, who assessed the letter that Ramaphosa wrote on 9 March, briefed the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies.
“The letter by the president is not only unprecedented, but it is grossly unlawful. The letter of 9 March has got no basis in law.
“If the President, for whatever reason feels that what Parliament directed him to do is unlawful, the President has got one option. He has got to approach a competent court chair. The President cannot take the law (into) his [own] hands, our Constitution is not self-executing. The President cannot adopt a self-help constitutional style,” Tetyana said.
The Citizen reported on Saturday that the committee and opposition parties have now called on Ramaphosa to appoint a new SABC board immediately.
The SABC has been without a board for almost six months and Ramaphosa has been criticised for delaying the appointment of new members.
ALSO READ | Ramaphosa’s letter to Parliament on SABC board list ‘is grossly unlawful’
Parliament will also be reverting to the original list of candidates, the report said.
“The committee is pleased that the independent legal opinion reaffirms that its recruitment process and the subsequent resolution of the [National Assembly] were above board,” the report quoted the portfolio committee’s chairperson Boyce Maneli as saying.
“Accordingly, in his capacity as the appointing authority, the president should be able to appoint the SABC board from the list of names that were adopted by the National Assembly in December 2022.”
Ramaphosa wrote to Parliament to seek clarity on the shortlisted names, which included a “reserve pool” of three extra names in addition to the 12 who would ultimately serve on the board, EWN reported.
Included in this list was a reserve pool of candidates that could be considered should one of the recommended people be unable to take up their position on the board, according to News24.
Ramaphosa raised concerns about the unavailability of one of the recommended candidates, Professor Franz Krüger, the report said.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/@PresidencyZA
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Betha Madhomu
