The African National Congress (ANC) and the Minister of Communications Roy Padayachie are facing accusations of interfering with the recruitment process of the new head of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

The claim, published in South Africa’s Sunday Independent, comes following the resignation of SABC board member Peter Harris and the dismissal of the chief financial officer Robin Nicholson, who had been acting group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the broadcaster since Sally Mokoetle was sacked in 2010.

In a statement, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) says it is “deeply concerned by the ongoing governance crises at the SABC,” which the former claims the public broadcaster has been experiencing for the past six years.

“The crises seemed to climax in 2007, however despite various attempts to bring stability we seem to be little further than where we were some three years ago, in terms of fundamentally addressing corporate governance issues,” said the MMA.

The independent monitoring organisation believes that the appointment of the group CEO should be made by the SABC board alone. It says it has been significantly concerned with the manner in which the board, the Minister and the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio committee have reportedly handled this latest issue.

“It defies belief that four years after the leadership crisis involving the then GCEO Dali Mpofu, the Minister and the Board that we have at the public broadcaster (that is mandated to serve the public’s interest), which has no full time, formally appointed GCEO, CFO or COO,” declared the MMA.

“This is a clear sign of a governance crisis at the SABC, and the Board, the Minister and the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio committee must all shoulder some responsibility for this latest turn of events,” concluded the media monitoring association.