Termination of Motsoeneng’s disciplinary hearing to be met with order of contempt

04 December 2015

The DA will proceed with contempt proceedings against the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) should it accept the unlawful termination of the Court mandated disciplinary hearing of its Chief Operating Officer (COO), Hlaudi Motsoeneng, in violation of an order of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). 

The DA approached the Court with an application with two distinct legal parts: part A which sought to have Mr Motsoeneng suspended and disciplined as an employee of the SABC for numerous counts of misconduct committed as the then acting COO and part B which sought to have the promotion of Mr Motsoeneng to permanent COO. The DA was successful in both parts, meaning that Mr Motsoeneng is no longer COO, but, as he remains an employee of the SABC, he must still be disciplined and suspended.

The legal position in this respect is clear and uncomplicated. Astonishingly, however, it has been reported that the Chairman of the disciplinary inquiry, Adv William Mokhari, has terminated the disciplinary hearing, as the setting aside of his promotion to permanent COO was a "material intervening factor".  

As a result, Mr Motsoeneng could now return to work as COO. It is utterly preposterous to suggest, as the SABC now does, that two separate judgments, both requiring serious and immediate sanction of Mr Motsoeneng, cancel one another out, having the result that he should return to work as COO. The suggestion is so absurd and baseless in law that it confirms that the SABC is hell-bent on ensuring that this disciplinary process is reduced to a sham. 

The vexatious endeavour to shield Mr Motsoeneng from accountability at all costs is the gold standard of contempt and disdain for due process by a state entity that is mandated to uphold the constitutional principles on which it is founded.

The conduct of the disciplinary hearing of Mr Motsoeneng has been an insult to the Rule of Law. 

The DA’s lawyers have today written to the SABC to demand reasons for this mockery of the SCA’s judgment, failing which the DA will proceed urgently with the contempt proceedings against the SABC.

Statement issued by James Selfe, MP, Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Executive