This one isn't a deliberately engineered crisis like the financial one and the one about the appointment of the board. — William Bird, Director - Media Monitoring Africa Bird says the SABC is a difficult environment to go into and the position of COO has always been met with serious challenges. Prior to this, we had a huge amount of direct political interference in the running of the SABC. It has always not been so surprising that it is a difficult position to hold and for people to stay there for a couple of years. — William Bird, Director - Media Monitoring Africa