Muthambi rubbishes adverse legal opinion from Parliament

Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications, Muthambi insisted that under the Companies Act, the board had the right to remove its own members without the involvement of the president, who appoints them.

 

This contradicts the legal opinion presented to the committee by parliamentary legal advisor Nathi Mjenxane in May. He told MPs that the Broadcasting Act was the governing legislation in this regard, and said it stated plainly that only the president could remove board members of the public broadcaster, after proper inquiry.

 

But Muthambi was unapologetic. She accused Parliament of flouting the constitutional separation of powers by seeking to prescribe to a member of the executive which legislation to apply.

 

“It is not a function of Parliament to tell a member of the executive which law must be applied over other legislation… it offends the doctrine of separation of powers.”

 

She said if there was no conflict between the two pieces of legislation but had there been, only the Constitutional Court would have been able to dictate to government which to uphold.

 

Muthambi began her presentation by saying claims that she had overstepped her powers by allowing the removal of Hope Zinde, Rachel Kalidass and Ronnie Lubisi was “gossip” being spread to destabilise the SABC. -ANA

 

(File Photo: Gallo Images)