New Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) board |16 June 2017

Gerard Lafortune appointed chairman

Gerard Lafortune is the chairman of the newly-appointed Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation board.

The vice-chairman is Jean Claude Matombé, while the other board members are Angele Low, Marion Gendron, Linda Monthy, Marie-Annette Ernesta, Harry Tirant, Jean-Marc Lablache and Rene Durup.

The new Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) board members were presented with their instruments of appointment by President Danny Faure in a ceremony at State House on Wednesday afternoon.

The board members were nominated by the Constitutional Appointment Authority (CAA), the National Assembly, the judiciary, Seychelles Inter Faith Council (Sifco), Association of Media Practitioners Seychelles (Amps), Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps) and the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).

The new SBC board has been appointed after amendments to the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) Act was approved by the National Assembly on April 11 this year and assented by President Faure on April 21.

The amendments provide for the board to consist of a chairperson, a vice-chairperson and seven other members. The President of the Republic appoints the chairperson, vice-chairperson and one other member from proposals made by the CAA. Six other members are appointed by proposals made by the different bodies mentioned earlier.

Mr Lafortune, Mr Matombé and Ms Low were nominated by the by CAA, Mr Lablache by the National Assembly, Mr Durup by the judiciary, Mrs Gendron by Sifco, Ms Ernesta by AMPS, Mr Tirant by SCCI and Ms Monthy by Ceps.

Present at the ceremony at State House were representatives of the above-mentioned bodies and officials from the offices of the President and the Vice-President.

A former principal secretary, Mr Lafortune is a civil engineer and has held various prominent positions like on the Electoral Commission, the National Day organising committee, the board of Air Seychelles, just to name some.

During his years as a media practitioner, Mr Matombé has gained a wealth of experience in both technical, operations and management side of broadcasting. He is passionate about his work as an advocate of child protection, gender in the media and human rights. He is a former board member of the Seychelles Media Commission on which he served two terms. He actively lobbied for the production of a code of conduct for the media and the board of SBC.

Mr Durup is a licensed Attorney at law with 17 years’ experience in the field, Mr Lablache is also an Attorney at law and member of the Bar Association, Mr Tirant is a chartered architect and director of Tirant Associates, Ms Ernesta holds a degree in English and Media studies from the University of Sussex. As for Ms Monthy, she is the financial controller in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and a devoted volunteer working especially with the disabled. She started her career as an English teacher at the Seychelles College before joining the public service in 1984. She pioneered the development of the first National Human Resource Development plan for Seychelles.

Ms Low is a certified accountant who also holds a Master’s degree in Finance and Risk Management.

“It’s quite a big board comprising nine members, people from various background ‒ accounting, management and media. I think the first task the board needs to set itself is to take stock of the current situation of SBC, of its human resources, of its technical resources, financial resources and so on. And take recognisant of the views of the public. We would have to also take stock of where we would like to go in this new political environment Seychelles finds itself in as well as the new technological environment the whole world is in,” said Mr Lafortune.

He added that the board will also study how to move forward with what it has, see what actions could be implemented so that SBC can be a people’s station, a people’s radio, a people’s television.

Mr Lafortune remarked that the chairman of any board does not need to have the specific knowledge in the mandate of the institution itself.

“For example, the chairman of Air Seychelles does not have to be a pilot, does not have to know how to fix a plane. The members will contribute in various areas like in terms of planning, projects, use of human resources. In fact the chairman can contribute a lot. I believe I have a lot of experience and am a close follower of the media. As is the case for all Seychellois, I am a consumer of what SBC transmits. So I can judge what I believe is right and what I believe needs to be fixed,” he said.

The new board is expected to meet for its first meeting next Wednesday.