SABC mandate
Board’s goals and
News deliverables
Presentation to Rhodes
August 2004
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SABC mandate
Content
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Governance of Corporation
Board appointments
Responsibilities
New Board
PBS roles and obligations
Public broadcasting strategy
Board goals
Board priorities
Management and staff mandate
SABC mandate
Governance of Corporation
• Broadcasting Act established SABC as
public broadcaster
• Broadcasting Charter outlines the broad
responsibilities of the SABC
– “6.2 In terms of this Charter, the
Corporation will … enjoy freedom of
expression and journalistic, creative and
programming independence.”
• SABC Board appointed via a public
process
– “14. … to control the affairs of the
Corporation …
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SABC mandate
Board appointments
• Twelve non-executive members:
– Public nominations
– Interviews and shortlisting by
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
– Endorsed by National Assembly and
appointed by the President
– President appoints a chair and deputy
• CEO, COO and CFO are executive
members of the Board
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SABC mandate
Responsibilities
• Board determines SABC objectives and
policy
• Board appoints Executive Committee:
CEO and six other members, including
MD: News
• Executive Committee
– administers the Corporation
– is accountable to the Board
– perform functions as determined by the
Board
– execute objectives and policy
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SABC mandate
New Board
• Appointed end 2003 and took
office end January
• After intensive review of SABC,
Board formulated the way forward
for its term, until 2008:
– PBS roles and obligations
– Public broadcasting strategy
– Goals
– Priorities
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SABC mandate
PBS roles and obligations 1/3
• Inform, educate and entertain citizens
• Promote national identity and
contribute to nation building
• Provide a diversity of programmes,
thus serving all audiences, young and
old, men and women, rural and urban,
able and disabled, and serve all
national languages and cultures
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SABC mandate
PBS roles and obligations 2/3
• Give special attention to serving
minorities
• Showcase national cultures and
arts, through helping to build local
production industries
• Nurture democracy
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SABC mandate
PBS roles and obligations 3/3
Board chair:
• “But these roles and obligations can only be
achieved authentically and substantially when
editorial independence and journalistic
freedom is guaranteed and practiced,
fundamental public service broadcasting
principles that this Board is determined to
uphold and defend.
• “In summary, public service broadcasting is
therefore charged to undertake that which is
valuable but not valued by the market place;
that which makes a difference in our lives and
responds to our essential human needs.”
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SABC mandate
Public broadcasting strategy
Excerpts:
• “… public broadcaster must surely be the source
for the public good, and for an empathic, patriotic
and thoughtful citizenship.”
• “… cannot be the source for a culture that is antidemocracy and anti-politics,
• “… offering programming that is simultaneously
modern and impactful on the one hand, and
empathic, patriotic and serving of the public good
on the other …”
• “… nation and democracy is best served by
programming that is described here within the
fundamental principles and essential requirements
of editorial independence and journalistic freedom”
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SABC mandate
Board goals 1/3
• Ensure the SABC promotes democracy and
non-racialism by building empowerment through
innovative programming that is informative,
entertaining and educative in all official
languages
• Align SABC operations with the Broadcasting
Charter, the Corporation’s objectives as set out
in the Broadcasting Act, and the Editorial
Policies
• Create a financially sound corporation built on a
sustainable business model within a specified
timeframe that enables it to fulfil its mandate
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SABC mandate
Board goals 2/3
• Revitalise the Corporation, particularly the News
Department by making it a preferred place of
employment, attracting, retaining and nurturing
the best available talent in the country
• Ensure full statutory and regulatory compliance
by all divisions of the public broadcaster
• Ensure that appropriate Employment Equity and
Black Economic Empowerment Policies are in
place
• Create an SABC that enjoys the support and
respect of its shareholder, viewers, listeners as
well as other stakeholders
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SABC mandate
Board goals 3/3
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• Ensure compelling, professional and
authoritative news and current affairs
programming that tells the South African story
accurately, fairly and in a balanced way while
reflecting the world, in particular Africa, to all
South Africans in line with the SABC’s Editorial
Policies
• Ensure that the SABC plays a meaningful role
in supporting the objectives of African
Renaissance and Nepad
• Ensure that the SABC has in place the
technology platform that will enable it to deliver
on its mandate
SABC mandate
Board priorities 1/3
• Consider and define the role of the SABC as
a public broadcaster and align policies and
strategies accordingly
• Ensure compliance of the SABC’s activities
with the provisions of the Broadcasting Act,
as amended, and the Editorial Policies
• Ensure that the corporatisation requirements
of the Broadcasting Act, as amended, have
been disposed of timely and successfully
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SABC mandate
Board priorities 2/3
• Ensure that various business units comply
with local content quotas in television and
radio and even exceed these
• Extend the investment in SABC Africa
• Ensure that coverage of Africa is enhanced
• Establish an appropriate organisational
model that separates the public and
commercial services portfolios of the SABC
as required by legislation
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SABC mandate
Board priorities 3/3
• Operationalise the regional television
channels
• Encourage regional skills development and
regional productions
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SABC mandate
Management and staff mandate
• Board’s goals and priorities
– constitute the mandate of the
organisation
– must drive daily operations in the
News Division
– determine MD and News
management’s KPAs
– must cascade down to all levels of
the division
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SABC mandate
End
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