The Democratic Alliance has called on communications minister Yunus Carrim, in his capacity as shareholder representative at the SABC, to instruct the public broadcaster’s board to suspend its acting chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, with immediate effect.
This comes after publication of a damning report by public protector Thuli Madonsela into governance failures at the public broadcaster. Madonsela’s report showed that Motsoeneng had lied about his qualifications — including the fact that he didn’t have a matric — and was guilty of a number of counts of maladministration and failures of corporate governance. (See SABC’s Motsoeneng ‘lied’ his way to the top.)
DA MP Marian Shinn says the report shows that the SABC has become “dysfunctional”.
“This report confirms that the SABC has been plagued by incompetence, routine corruption and cadre deployment for years,” Shinn says in a statement.
She says the SABC must recruit a suitably qualified and experienced group CEO and chief operating officer as soon as possible to head a “crisis management team to stop the rot” at the broadcaster.
“Motsoeneng must be removed from the premises and forbidden access to any SABC staff during the process of determining his possible permanent removal from the corporation. He must also be forbidden from having contact with the SABC board, with whom he has an unhealthy close and protective relationship,” Shinn says.
She says Motsoeneng has an “extensive record as an unscrupulous character within the broadcaster’s administration” and “used his political clout to collapse the last SABC board when it voted to remove him from the acting chief operating officer post”.
“It is unlikely that any of the current board would be serving if they were not indebted or in league with Motsoeneng,” she adds.
“The public protector’s picture of Motsoeneng’s character and behaviour clearly shows that his continued presence at the corporation will continue to have a destructive effect on operations and personnel.” — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media