Calls for the resignation of the SABC board were repeated on Friday after it suspended its group chief executive officer Dali Mpofu again.

"The SABC board must step down," the corporation's senior management forum (SMF) said in a media briefing at the national broadcaster's offices in Auckland Park, Johannesburg.

"On Tuesday we will demand a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki as we want him to address this matter. We feel helpless and the SABC is going down," said SMF member Sipho Sithole, who is the SABC's head of group management and strategy.

Earlier this month, the Johannesburg High Court upheld a ruling finding that Mpofu's suspension was unlawful and that he be reinstated.

However, the board suspended him again on Friday.

"The board suspended Mpofu on the same terms as last time. Enough is enough. This has nothing to do with Mpofu but to do with a board that has no moral obligation to lead," said Sithole.

He said the SMF had noted with concern the latest developments at the SABC and recommended that a commission of inquiry should carry out an investigation.

"We call for a commission of inquiry to investigate the court cases and parliamentary debates," said Sithole.

At least 50 members of the SMF signed a petition in support of the SMF's call for the board to step down.

As Sithole was addressing the media, about 100 members of the Freedom of Expression Network, a group of community-based bodies, were picketing outside the SABC offices.

Gauteng organiser Siphiwe Segodi said the SABC needed to get back into order after all the internal strife it was going through.

Oupa Lebogo, general secretary of the Creative Workers Union of SA, also asked that the board step down.

"The board lacks the legitimacy that is necessary to resolve the current crisis. The new independent board should represent labour and civil society," said Lebogo.

Sapa