IMMEDIATE REINSTATEMNT OF SOLLY MOKOETLE AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE BOARD

We have noted with grave concern, the current developments at SABC, part of which have resulted in the suspension of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Public Broadcaster,  Comrade Solly Mokoetle on Friday, 27 August 2010.

In January we had a press conference when we were committing our unwavering support for the appointment of Comrade Solly Mokoetle as the SABC GCEO; and it was at the same time that we stated that there are faceless people in the SABC who are hell-bent on derailing the public broadcaster from playing its role of informing and entertaining our nation at large. These people are the board members who have never supported the GCEO's appointment by the interim board that preceded the current board.

Who are these faceless people in the board who are fighting our comrade and making it impossible for him to deliver on his mandate of the government to transform the SABC. Today we want to refer to what they have been doing and expose them for the kind of charlatans they are. The SABC Board's primary role is to provide oversight to the strategic operations of management; however the Board has turned itself into an Executive management Board. They have become hands on in the operations of the organisation and we will expose their real reason of trying to impose their fictional executive role.

The Board has not been cooperative in the transformation of the SABC. In a period of 28 weeks since they arrived, they have required the GCEO to sit in more than 55meetings, which means that in the middle of driving the delivery of the World Cup, the GCEO would have at least held meetings twice a week with the Board than his managers and this raises the question of when does the GCEO get time to deal with operational matters.

In the same period, they have bombarded the GCEO with more than 500 emails that required him to respond by providing a lot of operational feedback and paying attention to one letter per hour, he would have to work from 08h00 - 17h00 every day of the week for at least three months without nothing else except responding to letters.

It is very important that we outline and share the information we have on the activities of the board members in the SABC of which the suspension of the GCEO is meant to cover:

On Cedric Gina (Non-Executive Board member)

1) He has compelled management to hire a consultant company that belongs to his personal friend Mr Justice Ndaba as a Human Resources Specialist of the SABC

2) He is currently a chairperson of a board subcommittee that refers to itself as the Turnaround Subcommittee; it meets weekly at a cost of R5000 per individual every meeting of the subcommittee. This seems to be an employment creation for the Non-Executive members that have no means of income

3) Gina and Niddri insisted on the SABC paying their telephone bills every month when they are currently non-permanent board members

On Rob Nicholson (Chief Financial Officer and acting GCEO)

1) The appointee Acting GCEO has been serving for nine months a final written warning in respect of financial irregularities wherein the SABC accumulated a deficit of R900 million during his term as the CFO.

This is despicable as the acting GCEO is a man with a character that is counterrevolutionary tendencies and clearly has no respect for corporate governance hence the abovementioned unauthorised deficit.

This appointment will reverse the gains of our progressive struggle to transform South Africa.

2) He approved a payment to Peter Harris (a board member) who billed the SABC an amount of R200 000 for work he did as a board member. To add salt to the wound, he was paid through the staff salary system and not as a vendor providing a service in order to hide the money

On Peter Harris (Non-Executive Board Member)

1) He insisted to the board that he be in contract negotiations for the World Cup with Sports Five, a France based company and billed the board for R200 000. This is a clear case of embezzlement that is rife in the SABC board.

On Piper Greene (Non-Executive Board member)

1) Sat on the Board panel that interviewed Phil Molefe for the position of Head of News when she knew that she was conflicted. She had also applied for the post and had not been considered for the position as she scored lower than Phil Molefe.

On David Niddri (Non-Executive Board member)

1) David insisted on writing letters for the board and later charged the SABC R16, 000 per letter he wrote on behalf of the SABC. To date he has accumulated R48, 000.

2) He also insisted on the board paying his cellphone account since joining the SABC board together with Cedric Gina.

On Felleng Sekga (Non-Executive Board member)

1) She had previously applied for the GCEO post and was not considered and she had further approached the GCEO to employ her relative, Mr Ziggy Molosi as a consultant for the SABC.

We are going to lay charges against these board members with the relevant authorities. We call upon the Special Investigations Unit and the Hawks to speedily investigate the SABC Board and the SABC in order that the public broadcasters' integrity can be restored.

The current board members have no respect for corporate governance guidelines and have trashed them with their deeds, and have put the SABC in a corporate governance crisis. The Deputy Chairperson usurped power by suspending the group CEO without knowledge of the sitting Chairperson. We also call upon the Public Protector and the Institute of Directors to investigate the breach of governance, evidence of maladministration and determine the extent thereof.

We further made a submission to Portfolio Committee on Communication regarding the situation at the SABC and how best to resolve it amicably. If they do not resign honourably, we recommend that they be dissolved by parliament for the problems they have created for the organisation and have made it dysfunctional. We have included the submission we made to the Portfolio Committee as part of the documents. We are going to march to Parliament next week.

We hereby declare that it is proper to reinstate Solly Mokoetle as GCEO based on the above reasons as there has never been a clear maladministration and corporate governance problems and Solly Mokoetle has fallen victim for being on the side that does not support such vile acts. The investigations must go on whilst the GCEO is back at the helm of the SABC.

Statement issued by MKMVA National Chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe, August 31 2010

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