 SABC suspends its former acting CEO Trade Unionist Rian Geldenhuys, suspended since August, now sacked Edwin Naidu, Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, 28 February 2010 The ongoing drama at the SABC took another twist on Friday when the former acting chief executive Gab Mampone, the group executive for commercial enterprises, was suspended on allegations of misconduct. There was more tension as the new board was questioned in Parliament about its "sketchy" plans for the corporation and then criticised for calling for another forensic investigation at the corporation when it had not yet acted fully on the Office of the Auditor-General's recommendations. And The Sunday Independent has learnt that another SABC employee has been fired for allegedly making public a document that contained corruption claims at the broadcaster. The 56-page document makes serious allegations against top management at the SABC, including Mampone, who was suspended pending allegations of misconduct linked to his post as sales head and while he was acting chief executive in place of sacked former head Dali Mpofu. On Mampone's watch senior staff members allegedly spent thousands of rands on expensive whisky, iPods and pens as gifts to clients. SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the board suspended Mampone on the basis of information in its possession which appear to point to possible acts of serious misconduct by him (Mampone). The SABC board said it had appointed Ray Nkwe as acting group executive for commercial enterprises. Kganyago said that Nkwe, who is the general manager of SABC1, will act in Mampone's position until a probe into Mampone was finalised. Mampone's suspension follows the sacking last month of Rian Geldenhuys, the man responsible for driving the digitalisation process of the SABC, which has stalled since his suspension in August, over allegations that he caused "bad press". Geldenhuys, according to the Communications Workers Union (CWU), helped compile but not write a document on behalf of the SABC strike committee, of which he was co-ordinator. The document was given to Parliament and has been in the public domain since June 30 last year. "Nobody knows who sent the report to Parliament but I am being made a scapegoat," said Geldenhuys. He said he had been regarded as a "troublemaker" and that the SABC had long wanted to silence him. He said even news reporters were battling to get their stories out because of censorship and political reasons, citing the example of former SABC journalist Elrees Friesland, who resigned last year after having a story about a large corporation rejected by television news head Amrit Manga "because it was too radical". "There was a huge fight. It is shocking when journalists are not allowed to tell their own stories." CWU chairman Tommy Morudu, who represented Geldenhuys, said he was awaiting the outcome of an appeal. The report paints a picture of the gross free-spending culture at the SABC even when the corporation was losing money. According to the Media Workers Association of SA (Mwasa), its member Themba Gasa, who works at the SABC, is also being targeted for his alleged involvement in making public the matter of the suspended newsreader Mahendra Raghunath. The popular newsreader faces a disciplinary hearing on suspicion by Manga that he (Raghunath) had allegedly leaked information to the media about Manga's management style, alleged favouritism of newsreaders, including paying more to former newsreader Joanne Joseph. While newsreaders received R1 100 a shift, Joseph used to get R1 300 and Manga allegedly also pushed up her salary grade before she left for e.tv. Manga refused to answer questions about these and other allegations, responding through Kganyago that it was an internal matter. Kganyago said Manga and news managing director Phil Molefe would not give interviews on matters that were of internal interest. United Association of South Africa (Uasa) manager of legal services Nick van Rooyen said on Friday that the union was concerned that instead of tackling genuine problems, the SABC was targeting employees - yet the crisis at the corporation went back to the decisions and mismanagement made by management of the corporation. He said Uasa was about to lodge papers in its matter involving newsreaders Thembisa Marele and Isabelle de Taiffer, both of whom were challenging the decision by Molefe and Manga to cut back on their hours of work as news readers. "We intend pursuing the matters through legal channels shortly." Ismail Vadi, the chairman of the portfolio committee on communications, said the committee had not been satisfied with the presentation by the board and executive. "We felt it was too sketchy and did not have much in the way of substance... the board also wanted a further forensic audit at the broadcaster, which we felt was not warranted unless they implemented the proposals of the auditor-general's recent report," he said. Regarding the problems at SABC news under the leadership of Molefe and Manga, Vadi said the board had indicated it would restart the process of looking for a permanent news head. "Most parties on the committee expressed concern that the news department is always embroiled in controversy," he said. -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
