The SABC board will face a grilling in Parliament on Wednesday over the reappointment of former chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Icasa’s ruling on its protest policy, and the Public Protector’s report.
The portfolio committee on communications is holding a special sitting into the public broadcaster this week, while the rest of Parliament is on recess.
MPs will hear the reasons behind and processes followed in reappointing Motsoeneng as group executive for corporate affairs. This followed the Supreme Court of Appeal rejecting his bid to appeal a November 2015 Western Cape High Court ruling declaring his appointment as COO irrational and setting it aside.
ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu said last week that the current board would likely be dissolved because of its decision to reappoint Motsoeneng in an executive post.
Mthembu described his reappointment as “nothing more than disrespect for the Supreme Court of Appeal’s ruling”.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane on Monday said Motsoeneng had shown South Africa’s legal system the middle finger.
Maimane said if Motsoeneng could not obey the law, no one would.
Wednesday’s agenda will also include a board update on the implementation of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s recommendations in her 2014 report into the broadcaster, entitled “When Governance and Ethics Fail”.
The board was expected to address the committee on the SABC’s compliance with Icasa’s ruling that it had to reverse a decision to no longer show footage of the destruction of property during violent protests.
On July 20, the broadcaster undertook to comply with Icasa’s ruling, despite Motsoeneng’s defiance a few days earlier.
The meeting is to begin at 11am – News24