Cape Town - Communications Minister Faith Muthambi says she has dealt with all the matters raised by the Public Protector in response to her findings on the SABC.
The Minister said she has also submitted a report to the Public Protector on remedial actions that would be implemented to address Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report.
She said this when briefing the Portfolio Committee on Communications, on Tuesday morning, following an invite to appear in Parliament to explain what actions had been taken to address the findings against the broadcaster.
The Public Protector had given the Minister six months from the time she released the report on the SABC’s investigation to take remedial action as recommended by the report.
“The SABC and [myself] have respectively submitted their remedial action plan to the office of the Public Protector.
“In light of the pending review application brought by the DA in the Western Cape High Court, it will not be proper for me to go into details for fear of infringing of the sub judice principle,” she said.
The Public Protector had been asked by former SABC employees to probe allegations of maladministration, systemic corporate governance deficiencies, abuse of power and the irregular appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as an Acting Chief Operations Officer (COO) by the SABC.
The Public Protector was also asked to investigate claims that Motsoeneng misrepresented his qualifications and to also probe the salary progression of Motsoeneng and other employees that led to the public broadcaster’s wage bill being increased by R29-million.
Following her investigation, the Public Protector found, amongst other matters, that the appointment of Motsoeneng was irregular, and that his salary progression was irregular.
The Public Protector said, as part of her recommendations, that all funds spent in the irregular salary progressions be recovered. She also said the SABC should take disciplinary action against Motsoeneng for misrepresenting his qualifications.
She also recommended that the Minister finalises the appointment of a permanent COO at the SABC within 90 days of her report to bring about stability at top management.
“[The SABC’s response is that] the funds were spent correctly and all the necessary approvals were given.
“The SABC could not discipline Mr Motsoeneng since it knew at the time of employing [him] that he did not have matric and had never lied about it.
“The SABC said salary increments were implemented through the relevant human resources guidelines of the SABC.”
The Minister said the vacancy of COO had been filled after she accepted the appointment of Motsoeneng on a permanent basis.
DA MP Gavin Davis later accused the Minister of avoiding accountability by not giving detailed responses to some of the questions related to Motsoeneng’s appointment. EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi also weighed on the DA’s claim, and said not the Minister’s unwillingness to respond meant Parliament could not hold government accountable.
The Minister said, in response, that after the DA decided to challenge Motsoeneng’s appointment in court, she was unable to respond to all the questions because the matter had now become sub judice and that by ignoring the rule, she would be undermining the court processes and the independence of the judiciary system.
The Minister later said that after meeting with the office of the Public Protector, there was an agreement that the parties would go back to the SABC and request a clear tangible action plan on how they will implement the remedial action. This, she said, would address any issues that the Public Protector was unhappy with. – SAnews.gov.za
