The South African Communist Party (SACP) has threatened possible legal action against former SABC chairperson Ellen Tshabalala for what it calls it calls her baseless allegation of interference by the party in the affairs of the public broadcaster.
Tshabalala told a parliamentary ad hoc committee on Friday that the SACP was one of many parties that had exerted "gross political interference" in SABC matters.
“Ellen Tshabalala made the allegation‚ which she failed to substantiate‚ while she was under oath. The SACP strictly reserves its rights in law and will take her head on legally‚” the SACP warned on Saturday.
It accused her of fabricating the allegation because she “harbours a grudge against the SACP”.
“The SACP has played a resolute role and remains consistent in exposing and campaigning against corporate capture at the SABC including the transfer of the public broadcaster's archives and associated programming influence or control to a private company‚ MultiChoice‚ a subsidiary of Naspers‚ a colonial-era mouthpiece of the Broederbond‚ an ideological vanguard organisation of apartheid.
“As the champion of democratic media transformation‚ and in this regard through its campaign to save the SABC from the governance decay that has been destroying the public broadcaster‚ the SACP has played a widely recognised decisive role publicly challenging Ellen Tshabalala to produce copies of the qualifications that she claimed to have obtained from the University of South Africa (Unisa) or failing which to resign or be removed for misinterpretation of facts leading to her appointment to the SABC board and to the position of its chairperson‚” the SACP asserted.
Tshabalala resigned as SABC chairperson in 2014 after Parliament’s communications committee found she had misrepresented her qualifications and lied under oath.
The SACP said on Saturday that a case of fraud should be brought against her in this regard.
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