PARLIAMENT, December 8 (ANA) – As explosive testimony emerged on Thursday during day two of the parliamentary inquiry into the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on the “meteoric rise to power” of Hlaudi Motsoeneng at the broadcaster, MPs also decided that board chairman Mbulaheni Maguvhe would be summonsed to appear before them and possibly charged with contempt of Parliament.
“By direction of the ad hoc committee, could we ask the legal team to put into motion that that is necessary to make sure the professor [Maguvhe] appears before this committee on Tuesday,” committee chairman Vincent Smith said after MPs indicated that they were unanimously in favour of a summons being served on the board chairman.
Maguvhe had already in late November been served with a summons to provide Parliament with a set of documents relevant to the inquiry. Ten of the 15 documents requested could either not be provided because the SABC claimed they were “commercially sensitive” or because they were no longer in the possession of the broadcaster.
One of the documents which the SABC on Wednesday claimed was commercially sensitive had already been provided to another committee of Parliament, making MPs question the motivation of the broadcaster in withholding the document.
“I’m requesting the legal team to go and do an investigation and report back to us by the end of the day tomorrow. In light that we’ve received this letter from the lawyer…and the fact that this very document was presented to this Parliament on the 30th of January. Is this action of yesterday [Wednesday], does it not border on contempt of Parliament?”
MPs said Maguvhe’s defiance needed to be nipped in the bud and that he needed to be compelled legally to appear before the inquiry.
“There is no way we can allow anyone to defy Parliament. My recommendation is that a summons be issued,” said African National Congress (ANC) MP Jabu Mahlangu.
Mahlangu’s views were echoed across party political lines.
ANC MP Makhosi Khoza said the defiance shown on the part of Maguvhe was paralysing MPs in their inquiry and led to a situation in which Parliament “is being subverted”, while Economic Freedom Fighters MP Fana Mokoena went a step further.
“It is time that we ask Mr Maguvhe to give us reasons why he should not be dismissed for many reasons, including to sabotage these proceedings…”
Earlier on Thursday, the committee heard testimony from two former board members and a former group chief executive officer.
Former board member Ronnie Lubisi, told MPs of the hostile environment on the board before he was removed along with the late Hope Zinde and Rachel Kalidass last year because of their opposition to the process of appointing Motsoeneng permanently to his previous position as chief operating officer (COO), despite the Public Protector having found that he had lied about his matric and being unqualified, among others, as well as the controversial MultiChoice deal.
Lubisi said shortly after current Communications Minister Faith Muthambi took office in July 2014 a meeting of the board was called. Muthambi had recommended that Motsoeneng be made COO.
“We had a very long meeting because it was problematic to some of us…When we were not agreeing it was said it will be put to a vote and then the majority voted in favour and it was said he [Motsoeneng] will be recommended to minister for appointment and he was appointed the following day or the same day by the minister,” Lubisi said.
“I voted against it in the sense that it didn’t make sense.”
Lubisi said the SABC’s own policies, which included advertising the position and making sure the person had adequate qualifications, was not adhered to.
He said he had no doubt he and others were unceremoniously removed because of their opposition to Motsoeneng’s appointment.
Lubisi was told he would be removed as the board’s audit sub-comittee chair because of a “conflict of interests” regarding two companies who were contracted to the SABC whom he was told he was providing auditing services for. He denied ever having worked for the two companies, and even after providing proof of this, was removed, he said.
Lubisi described several letters written to him by Muthambi, including one appealing to his conscience to resign and another asking him to provide reasons why he should not be removed, as “hostile”.
“Those subsequent letters were not nice letters. It was not love letters,” he said
“The minister acknowledged at a certain point that she can’t remove us…”
He said it was left to Maguvhe to “take us out”.
Former group CEO Lulama Mokhobo, who was appointed in 2012 and who resigned in 2014 before she could complete her tenure, later testified that her position too became compromised at the SABC after objecting to the way things were being handled at board and management level.
While she was meant to be the link between the board and executives, she said Motsoeneng was favoured by many board members – leading to him becoming the “go-to man”.
Mokhobo said she had also taken a tough stance on signing off on contracts for services the broadcaster did not need.
“Part of fractious relationship arose because I simply refused to sign off on contracts that simply did not make sense to me.”
She also explained how the SABC deal to give MultiChoice access to certain of its archives, which she strongly opposed, was signed when she took leave as a result of her granddaughter being ill.
“During the week that the contract was signed, I’d gone on leave. In my absence it was quickly pushed through and signed,” said Mokhobo.
Later, she told MPs she had been “threatened” that she would face a slander lawsuit if she testified, but appeared to afraid to tell MPs exactly who was threatening her.
MPs accepted that they could not protect her outside of the inquiry and allowed her to not answer some questions.
Mokhobo said she eventually agreed to leave before her term as CEO was meant to end in 2017 because she simply could not take it anymore.
“I was exhausted. I got to a point where I felt there was nothing more that I could do. If the writing is on the wall — go — why force myself to stay on when I was not wanted.”
Next up was Vusi Mavuso, a former board member who resigned just weeks ago during a briefing to MPs on the portfolio committee on communications. Mavuso was asked directly whether he was threatened, to which he replied: “I wish they would try”.
Mavuso said that during the July 2014 meeting he had specifically “abstained” from voting on whether Motsoeneng be appointed as COO after raising similar concerns about lack of proper process being followed.
Shortly afterwards he said he was “virtually dragooned to appear before the minister” at 6 am one morning.
“The minister was not there. Of course it was her legal adviser…some document was flashed before me…these are my misdemeanours – I have ambitions of becoming group CEO,” he said.
Asked why he had also decided to tender his resignation, Mavuso said while he was “not a quitter”, the tensions on the board were so severe and that the situation had become so unbearable that he had “become insane”.
“It reached a point where I couldn’t take it anymore.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
