Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications said it was satisfied with the progress made by the Board of the SABC on the implementation of the recommendations of the Public Protector in the report, “When Governance and Ethics Fail” and those of the Ad Hoc Committee on the SABC Board Inquiry.
Committee chairperson, Humphrey Maxegwana, said in a statement that the current SABC Board rescinded the decision of the previous Board to take the Public Protector's report on a judicial review.
“It implemented the recommendations, including resuscitating disciplinary hearing against former Chief Operations Officer (COO), Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who was subsequently dismissed for other misconduct,” he said.
“On the Ad Hoc Committee recommendations, the Committee has noted the successes including, among others, a reversal of the duties of the Editor-in-Chief from the COO to the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), review of 90/10 local content directive as well as termination of contracts awarded irregularly to Lornavision and The New Age (TNA) media.”
Maxegwana said however that the Committee felt that “little has been done in so far as investigating the occurrences of staff intimidation, especially involving former SABC Journalist, the late Suna Venter”.
“The Committee encouraged the Board to make concerted efforts to uncover perpetrators in order to avoid future recurrences,” he said.
Maxegwana, said the Committee has welcomed the initiative to recover ill-gotten monies from Motsoeneng and James Aguma.
“We also appreciate the fact that there is a possibility of instituting criminal charges against those employees who allegedly participated in criminal activities under the regime of the previous Board,” said Maxegwana.
