(Subcommittee) MDDA Vacancies: Subcommittee Programme

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the meeting noting it was a subcommittee meeting as appointed by the National Assembly to focus on filling vacancies on the board of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA).

Mr Thembinkosi Ngoma, Committee Secretary, took Members through the appointment process for the two MDDA board vacancies. The board of the MDDA consists of nine positions of which six are appointed by the President on recommendation of the National Assembly and other three are appointed directly by the President. The MDDA Board currently has two vacancies as a result of expiring terms which occurred in October 2020. The Committee will firstly agree on the number of candidates to be shortlisted. The Committee received a number of applications from young people who are looking for job opportunities.

Parliament does not have a policy on the number of candidates to be shortlisted for a position, hence the subcommittee makes a determination on the number of candidates. Due to Covid19, it has become a challenge to verify international qualifications however the emphasis is now on verifying the highest qualification of a candidate. The advert was not specific on the level of qualification needed to apply – it only indicated that candidates must be qualified and have experience and expertise in the fields outlined in the MDDA Act. Verification of local qualifications can take three to five days and for international qualifications it can take three to five weeks. Qualifications are verified by MEI, which is a service provider contracted to Parliament. Consent forms are sent to candidates to allow for qualification checks and security vetting.

There must be public participation in the nomination process. The Committee has been transparent and open about the process with the public. The list of candidates has been made available in the ATC of Parliament. Calls are made to the public to make necessary comments on the shortlisted candidates.

The MDDA Act provides which candidates can be disqualified and considered. All members are appointed on a non-executive basis. The Committee has adopted a mechanism where it does not make a final consideration unless it has seen all the qualifications and security checks done through the State Security Agency and human resources.

Discussions

The Chairperson highlighted a possible clash in the programme between the interviews and another meeting scheduled for 31 August 2021.

Mr Ngoma responded that there has been a shift in meeting times. There was also an adjustment in time for the meeting to be held on 3 September 2021.

The link and list of candidates is available to Members of the Committee. For Members to access the list of candidates, they need to be logged into the Parliament server - in some instances, Members may experience challenges but they may contact the Committee Secretary. The reason why the documentation for the candidates is not emailed is because the file is big which makes it difficult to access via email. This is why the option was present to access the list through a link.  

The Committee adopted the programme.

Meeting was adjourned