The SABC board on Wednesday said it was challenging the Public Protector’s adverse findings against Hlaudi Motsoeneng as it defended handing him another senior post, in apparent defiance of the Cabinet and ruling African National Congress (ANC) caucus.
Acting chief executive James Aguma said the broadcaster lodged a review application of Thuli Madonsela’s findings of maladministration with the North Gauteng High Court on May 17, after a disciplinary hearing in December showed that she had erred in some respects.
As the hearing cleared Motsoeneng of any wrongdoing, there was no impediment to this month’s decision to re-appoint him as chief executive of corporate affairs after the Supreme Court of Appeal would not entertain an appeal of a high court decision invalidating his appointment as chief operating officer.
Last week Cabinet urged the SABC board to heed that ruling in letter and spirit, signalling that Motsoeneng had run out of political support.
“I don’t need political support, I have legal support,” Aguma told the African News Agency (ANA) during the lunch break at a day-long emergency meeting between the SABC board and Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications.
The meeting turned dramatic after lunch as two board members, Krish Naidoo and Vusi Mavuso, told MPs they would quit.
Naidoo had been at odds with the board’s insistence on retaining Motsoeneng and signalled his unhappiness with the way Wednesday’s meeting was handled by acting SABC chairman Obert Maguvhe.
Maguvhe was rebuked by committee chairman Humphrey Maxegwana after he said he would answer hard-hitting questions from MPs across the political spectrum in writing at a later stage, because they were going beyond the agenda set for the meeting.
“The Professor is disorganising my meeting. There are so many issues here, you cannot confine yourself because the area is vast … if the chairperson is unable to answer the questions, delegate to your board,” Maxegwana said firmly.
Earlier Maguvhe told MPs that the high court ruling last year that invalidated Motsoeneng’s appointment as COO, never precluded him serving in another post, nor did other judgements in the long legal battle waged by the opposition Democratic Alliance to unseat him.
“At no time did any of the judgements state that Mr Motsoeneng had to be dismissed as an employee.”
Maguvhe stressed that in terms of the the memorandum of incorporation of the SABC, Aguma’s naming of Motsoeneng to a new post was entirely sound.
“The MOI, it stipulates that the powers to appoint and to staff members of the SABC management team are designated to the CE and can only be revoked by the minister… this requirement is included under clause 4 of the delegation of authority framework,” he added.
“Mr Aguma does not require board approval, this approval will have the unintended consequences of subverting the rule of law,” he added.
James Selfe, the chairman of the DA’s federal executive, said he found the chairman’s presentation disingenuous.
“It is a sorry history of ducking and diving,” Selfe said.
“It is almost surreal that in face of a chapter 9 finding and three court judgments we find ourselves in this meeting still discussing. I hope this is the beginning of the end.”
Economic Freedom Fighters deputy leader Floyd Shivambu said the SABC had flouted, again, the law in side-stepping the Public Protector’s directives on Motsoeneng and urged Parliament to launch an inquiry into the SABC board’s fitness to hold office.
Shivambu said it was indisputable that Motsoeneng was a “fraudster” as he was found to have lied about his qualifications and there could therefore be no basis for giving him another senior post at the broadcaster.
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi attended the meeting but said she would leave it to Maguvhe to handle the presentation and questions. Last week, Cabinet spokesman Jeff Radebe said she would be urged to call the board to order for not respecting the court rulings against Motsoeneng.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu underscored the point and accused the board of failing in its duties. He said its re-appointment of Motsoeneng was the “last straw”.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
