Marian Shinn. Image courtesy of the DA.
Yunus Carrim, South Africa’s latest communications minister, will tomorrow meet his opposite number, the Democratic Alliance’s Marian Shinn, for the first time, with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) likely to be high on the agenda.
Speaking to HumanIPO today, Shinn said she was looking forward to discussing the Department of Communications’ priorities with Carrim, who took up his post earlier this month after Dina Pule was fired.
Carrim announced earlier today he had set up a new task team to bring stability to the troubled broadcasting corporation, but Shinn is unsure as to the benefit of more money being spent on its management and guidance.
Shinn told HumanIPO: “The South African Broadcasting Corporation is a decades long problem. The main problem is a weak executive management and a bloated staff which is going to bleed them dry.
“The management do seem to be running scared from the unions.”
Carrim has made no secret of his focus on the SABC since he took up his position, but has distanced himself from becoming involved in editorial matters.
Regarding other topics she was likely to touch on, Shinn said she wanted assurances on how the government was going to achieve higher broadband penetration and picked out “white spaces” technology as one solution which should be exploited.
She added: “There is tremendous potential in the white spaces and that needs to be explored as soon as possible.
“Digital broadcasting is all well and good for people wanting to spend their lives in front of the television, but the real benefit comes from freeing up the space for broadband use.
“I know that ICASA is busy doing white spaces research and putting proposals together.”
