SOS strongly supports the Public Protectors recommendations on SABC

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SOS strongly supports the Public Protectors recommendations on SABC --

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 13:59

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SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition, has issued the following statement following the Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela s report on an investigation into allegations of maladministration, systemic corporate governance deficiencies, abuse of power and the irregular appointment of the COO, Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng by the SABC:

The report communicates, inter alia, the following allegations as being substantiated:

That the SABC Board under Dr Ben Ngubane, allowed Mr Motsoeneng to act as Chief Operating Officer for a period exceeding three (3) months without the requisite Board resolution, and exceeding the capped salary allowance;

That the GCEO and Dr Ngubane s approval of each of Mr Motsoeneng s three salary increments amounting to 63% in a single fiscal year was irregular;

That former Board Chairperson, Dr Ngubane, abused his power and acted as a de facto executive chairperson of the SABC;

That Mr Motsoeneng, by his own admission, made fraudulent misrepresentations to his employers that he had completed his matric qualification;

That suspended CFO, Ms Gugu Duda, was appointed irregularly through the interference of the Department of Communications and, by implication, then Minister of Communications, Ms Dina Pule; and

That Mr Motsoeneng, irregularly and through his abuse of power, purged senior staff members, particularly those who challenged him, from the SABC, leading to an avoidable loss of millions of rands towards salaries in unnecessary settlements, escalating the SABC s salary bill by an unprecedented amount in excess of R29m.

The Public Protector s findings lay bare what the public has known to be happening in the SABC all along. It gives detail to the gross maladministration and systemic corporate governance breaches in the SABC that the SOS Coalition has been campaigning against since its inception in 2008.

The Public Protector s findings give merit to the SOS Coalition s position that the SABC has been and remains in crisis. Indeed, the Coalition agrees with her observation of a series of pathological corporate governance failures by the SABC.

These findings, read together with last year s audit disclaimer by the Auditor General of South Africa, the damning SABC Skills Audit report as well as the recent

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