And when he appointed Phil Molefe head of news without bothering to consult his board, it was just a matter of time before board members started bailing out. Barbara Masekela, former SA ambassador to France, is leading the charge by quitting the board because of the complete shambles.
My contacts on the SABC board tell me that others will follow as sure as night follows day. The only reason why they're not all jumping ship right now is because Barbara Masekela was probably the least patient and the most perceptive. Others are hanging on hoping that someone, somewhere will take Ngubane in hand and shake some sense into him, while others are probably just waiting for a miracle to happen.
It won't.
Actually, the board itself is made up of some very good people, many of whom understand the media and understand what makes an organisation tick.
The problem is that you can have the best board of directors in the world, but if the chairman is hell-bent on acting like a despot without feeling the need consult his board colleagues, that board will be as ineffectual as a bucket without a bottom.
Now, being hauled before parliament actually means appearing before the portfolio committee for communications which is a body made up mostly of ANC MP's but also including a minority made up of most of the other parties in parliament.
They are the ones who choose the board and when they chose the existing board they didn't actually do too badly.
Trouble is, they don't choose the chairman. In principle, the state president does that after being advised by parliament. In reality, however, the ANC decides who should be chairman and that decision is foisted on the board even though everyone will deny it vehemently.
The chairman of the SABC board has always been a political appointee and as long as it continues to be a political decision the board will end up in shambles because, the chairman will never be able to comply with the most basic conditions of which board chairmen should operate. And that is, like his board members, to work completely towards the good of the company first and foremost. That is the job of boards and board chairmen.
So, I would suggest that the portfolio committee can save itself a lot of time and trouble by forgetting about trying to gets answers from Ngubane and his board when they appear before them later this month and rather just ask the ANC chief whip to convey to his party's powers that be, that if they persist in appointing politicians with no idea of what makes the broadcast industry tick, or refuse to take advice from the skills available to him among his board colleagues, then the SABC will continue to be the monumental cock-up that it has been for heaven knows how many years now.
It will continue to be a hotbed of inefficiency caused by frustrated management and employees. It will continue to lose money and will continue to suffer the shame of the South African public pointing fingers at Auckland Park and laughing.
Its credibility won't decline however, mainly because its already at ground zero.
Being a chairman is not about sitting at the top of the table and looking important. It demands considerable people skills, diplomacy, guidance, a thorough understanding of systems, structures and protocols and most of all a deep seated knowledge of what makes a company successful.
Having incompetent people running the national broadcaster will not result in positive publicity for government or the ANC, it will just give them a succession of headaches. Like it is doing right now.
