SABC BILL: PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE CHAIR CONCERNED ABOUT ‘PROLONGED DELAY’

SABC BILL: PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE CHAIR CONCERNED ABOUT ‘PROLONGED DELAY’

• 27 August 2025
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

National Assembly Communications & Digital Technologies Committee chair Khusela Diko has issued a media statement calling for ‘urgent action’ to end the ‘prolonged delay’ in finalising the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) SOC Ltd Bill. This is noting that, according to the statement:

• ‘in February 2025, the committee was advised that consultations between the Speaker, the Deputy President, the Minister and ultimately Cabinet were necessary, as a Minister cannot unilaterally withdraw an executive Bill’
• ‘apart from a verbal briefing in April 2025, no further update has been provided, leaving the Bill stalled before Parliament’, and that
• ‘the SABC’s financial and operational crisis continues to worsen’ (issues some stakeholders believe the Bill would address).

A Parliamentary Monitoring Group report on the committee’s 23 April 2025 meeting tends to suggest that Department of Communications & Digital Technologies Director-General Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani ‘attempted to defer detailed responses’ to members’ questions about the Bill’s status, simply indicating that ‘the matter was still under consideration in the Minister’s office and Cabinet processes’.

As SA Legal Academy has regularly reported, tabled in October 2023 the Bill seeks to:

• give effect to:
  • two Gauteng High Court rulings
  • recommendations emerging from a National Assembly ad hoc committee inquiry into the SABC board, and
• proposed areas of amendment recommended by the SABC
• address issues arising from a disconnect between the 1999 South African Broadcasting Act and the 2005 Electronic Communications Act, and
• ensure alignment with:
  • the 2008 Companies Act, and
  • the 1999 Public Finance Management Act.

The Bill was among those that lapsed when Parliament rose for the May 2024 elections, although by then the previous committee had called for and received written submissions – many of which were critical of the Bill’s contents. Presumably informed by that process, the Bill was revived in July 2024. However, on 11 November that year Communications & Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi announced his decision to withdraw it from Parliament, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time. Despite the controversy this sparked, no official statement was ever issued declaring the Minister’s announcement procedurally flawed and confirming the Bill’s status as legislation still being considered by Parliament. Instead, it was simply left in limbo.

• committee media statement
• Bill
• SA Legal Academy report on Minister’s November 2024 announcement
• SA Legal Academy 31 December 2024 report on Bill’s status

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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