Sentech was turned out by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications today and not given a chance to present its turnaround strategy.
Four of Sentech's board members, lead by chairman Quraysh Patel, were not allowed to present to the committee, as they had not submitted their presentations ahead of time for the members to consider and neither was the documentation considered adequate.
Committee chairman Ismail Vadi says he tried to be as lenient as possible and asked the committee members to allow Sentech to proceed. However, MPs from across the political spectrum refused to entertain Sentech's presence.
The national signal distributor was supposed to have presented its turnaround strategy to the committee two months ago.
“They had 60 days in which to prepare this documentation. They knew they had to get it ready for today, so we could not allow them to continue,” says Eric Kholwane (ANC).
Juli Kilian, Cope communications spokesperson, said: “It's about time we took a strong hand with Sentech. They are supposed to have presented their turnaround strategy, but this is totally unacceptable.”
No date has yet been set for Sentech to appear again.
Refusal to hear Sentech today was considered by a parliamentary observer as an astute move by the ANC.
“There is so much nonsense surrounding the communications sector, such as [with] the SABC, that it just keeps further trouble away for the time being,” the observer said.
The committee instead has continued with the consideration of its report on its trip to Brazil and Britain to investigate digital TV migration and regulatory issues.
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