Secret purge: Hlaudi's dirty war at SABC

State spooks harass critics as part of secret purge of officials at ailing broadcaster

Top SABC finance officials have spilt the beans on how Hlaudi Motsoeneng secretly used State Security Agency agents to find dirt on his enemies so he could purge them.

The spooks even went to one SABC employee's home village to quiz locals about his lifestyle. They also demanded that certain staffers take polygraph tests.

City Press reported last month that the controversial former SABC boss had called in the security agents to find out who was leaking sensitive financial information at the SABC.

This was confirmed in parliamentary hearings into the state broadcaster last week.

Now, two of the former finance officials have for the first time provided details of the sinister activities of Motsoeneng's spooks, who:

• Grilled one about his testimony against Motsoeneng to former public protector Thuli Madonsela;

• Sent agents to Limpopo to interrogate people who lived near his village about his lifestyle and assets;

• Grilled another about the influence labour unions wielded over SABC management; and

• Demanded that they take polygraph tests to prove they hadn't leaked sensitive documents.

They said the pretext for the probe was suspicion they had leaked the documents to the Sunday Times. Four people with access to the documents were suspended in April last year and interrogated by two SSA agents in May, and one of them again in June last year.

They are former head of risk Itani Tseisi, former finance manager for television Henk Lamberts, former finance manager in the chief financial officer's office Angus Summers, and shared financial services manager Andries van Dyk. All were cleared and all except Van Dyk have since left the SABC.

The SSA confirmed this week it had received a request "at some point" from the SABC to "assist with investigations" but would not specify who the target was and what was being probed.

Motsoeneng declined to respond to the allegations that he'd used spooks to dig up dirt on his enemies. "Let people talk. I'm not going to comment on these matters," he said. "I'm just admiring and watching them. When the time is right I will respond to everything."

On December 12, the High Court in Cape Town ruled that the former SABC executive could not hold any position in the SABC.

This week, Tseisi and Lamberts both told the Sunday Times Motsoeneng's SSA investigation against them was "unprecedented" and "unheard of".

"If they suspected a leak they should have obtained authorisation from the board to get a group internal audit or the forensic department to investigate," as was usual practice, said Lamberts. "To go to state security for this is totally crazy. To my knowledge it has never happened before."

His interrogation lasted 30 minutes. "They also asked me whether I thought the unions were influencing SABC management."

Lamberts agreed to do a polygraph test, "but I never heard from them again".

In December 2015 he was told he'd been cleared. "When I returned to work in January, I found they'd wiped my entire hard drive on my laptop - it was like it didn't exist."

Lamberts said the SSA probe was a pretext to go after Tseisi, who was "very vocal and says things as they are". Instructions for the probe must have come from acting CEO James Aguma or Motsoeneng, he said.

This week, Tseisi described how he was summoned to a meeting in May last year with an SSA agent who told him he "was approached by Hlaudi to assist them in investigating the leak of sensitive information".

What really raised my eyebrows was that Hlaudi told [the SSA agent] that I had provided the public protector with information that he was 'connected' and disrespectful of board members

He said Motsoeneng used the allegations of leaked documents as a pretext to purge him over his testimony to the public protector and their disagreement over encrypted digital television. Just before "a very important meeting to discuss encryption" in 2013, "Hlaudi came to me and tried to pressure me not to oppose the change in policy. I refused."

Soon afterwards, Motsoeneng signed a controversial contract to supply channels to MultiChoice. A condition was that the SABC had to support unencrypted digital television. "This decision of Hlaudi's only benefited MultiChoice," said Tseisi.

MultiChoice this week denied allegations that it influenced the SABC's decision to abandon encryption as the SABC "had formally adopted a position opposed to encryption as early as 2008, long before the conclusion of the agreement with MultiChoice," the company said.

Tseisi said he found the SSA's interest in his testimony to Madonsela particularly disturbing.

"What really raised my eyebrows was that Hlaudi told [the SSA agent] that I had provided the public protector with information that he was 'connected' and disrespectful of board members," said Tseisi.

He had told Madonsela's investigators in 2013 that Motsoeneng was "very influential", had attended board meetings although he wasn't entitled to do so, and had been verbally abusive towards board members, including former CEO Lulama Mokhobo.

The same SSA agent raised the issue at a second interrogation session in June 2015.

"I was getting very agitated then. This was degenerating into the SSA getting involved in a personal matter between me and Hlaudi," said Tseisi.

Three months later he was told by "my sources in the SSA" that agents were interrogating people who lived near his home village in Limpopo.

Tseisi regularly interacted with SSA officials in his role as the official designated to ensure the SABC was secure as a national key point.

"I received a call to say there are people in front of the Spar liquor store near my home village in Limpopo talking to people who knew me from my village," he said. "They were asking about my properties, my car. The invasion of privacy is what got me a little upset."

He said the SSA investigation had not been properly authorised. "This would have required board approval. They told me Hlaudi approached them. There was never any board authorisation," he said.

He also said it was "unprecedented" to use the SSA to probe a leak. This was supported by the SABC's former labour relations manager, Mandiwe Nkosi, who told parliament the SSA probe was kept secret from her even though she should have been informed. She was "concerned" that the SSA should be investigating an alleged leak.

"It's something that's unfamiliar to me," she said. "I don't think I've ever heard of it."

The SABC declined to comment on the SSA probe, including whether it was properly authorised. "The matter that you raised with regards to the SSA is before the ad-hoc committee handling the SABC board inquiry, therefore we will not comment on this matter as it will be regarded as disrespectful to the committee," said SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago.

hofstatters@sundaytimes.co.za