The Democratic Alliance said on Sunday that it has instructed its legal team to take the reappointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as acting chief operating officer back to court.

“We have been left with no other option following the deplorable decision taken by the SABC to undermine the Western Cape high court and the supreme court of appeal,” said James Selfe, chairman of the DA’s federal executive, in a statement.

“This decision is a slap in the face of the rule of law and is a desperate attempt to allow the Hlaudi Motsoeneng ‘wrecking ball’ to continue his disastrous reign at the public broadcaster,” Selfe said.

Selfe described the news, published in City Press, that Motsoeneng had apparently been paid an R11,4m bonus — one part of an expected R33m, three-year windfall — as “nothing more than SABC-endorsed plunder of its own resources to the benefit of just one man”.

“This madness needs to be stopped. Our precious public resources should be spent on building a reputable, fair and well-run public broadcaster, and not on the propping up of its single greatest impediment,” he said. — (c) 2016 NewsCentral Media