Cape Town – The SOS coalition is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) board accusing it of fraud and irregularities.
Civil society bodies, including Right2Know and People’s Media Consortium, say MDDA is now in its 3rd year of crisis.
In a statement, the coalition said that the board is implicated in allegations of abuse of power, the victimisation of whistle-blowers and board members, governance irregularities as well as possible fraud, corruption and undue influence in the allocation of funding to media organisations
“The MDDA Board is showing signs of the state capture modus operandi with the cynical restructuring of the entity through destabilisation tactics aimed at causing disorder internally,”
“The MDDA Board is failing to lead the entity strategically as far as the review of the MDDA Act and engagement with community media stakeholders, other communications entities and regulators is concerned, It is unacceptable that Ms Potye has been dismissed, essentially, for being a whistle,“ SOS coalition said.
They are calling on for the President to suspend the MDDA Board with immediate effect and to call the Board to account.
“Thereafter we call upon the President to institute a full inquiry into the MDDA to uncover any malfeasance and abuse of power,”
“We call for the immediate reinstatement of Ms Potye to her former position as CEO of the MDDA and for the reimbursement of all legal costs incurred by her during her disciplinary and arbitration hearings,” SOS coalition said.
The coalition believes that an independent judicial commission of inquiry is not only vital to the cleaning out of the entity, but will also serve as a platform to re-imagine a new MDDA – one fit for purpose and one which is ready to rise to the needs of the sector.
IOL