Rot at SABC exposed

Political interference, maladministration, purging of staff, jobs for pals and self-enrichment all festered at the SABC, with the board turning a blind eye and, in some instances, the chairman's connivance.

The corporation's acting chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, not only lied about his qualifications, but was embroiled in irregular appointments and enriched himself with three salary increases in one year - taking his pay from R1.5-million to R2.4-million.

Public protector Thuli Madonsela laid bare her damning findings in Pretoria yesterday after her "complex" inquiry into the SABC.

Disgraced former minister of communications Dina Pule is also fingered, for the second time, for unethical conduct in the appointment of Gugu Duda as SABC chief financial officer.

Duda, Madonsela found, was appointed through the intervention of Motsoeneng and others.

According to Madonsela, Motsoeneng admitted to falsifying his matric qualifications but he blamed this on a "Mrs Swanepoel", who "gave him the application form, to fill in anything to get the job".

On the application form, he lied by saying that he completed his matric year in 1991 in Qwaqwa, Free State.

Madonsela found that Motsoeneng acted in cahoots with then SABC board chairman Ben Ngubane, who ordered that the qualifications requirements for the post of COO be "tailor-made" to suit Motsoeneng's lack of qualifications.

In her report When Governance and Ethics Fail, Madonsela said Ngubane acted irregularly and abused his power.

The DA called for Motsoeneng's immediate suspension, saying the public broadcaster had been "plagued by incompetence, routine corruption and cadre deployment for years".

Said DA MP Marian Shinn: "Motsoeneng has an extensive record as an unscrupulous character within the broadcaster's administration. Motsoeneng used his political clout to collapse the last SABC board when it voted to remove him from the acting COO post."

Madonsela found that Motsoeneng's purging of senior staff, settlements paid to purged staff and the pay rises he awarded himself resulted in the SABC's salary bill rocketing by R29-million in one year.

Though she could not find conclusive evidence of Pule's involvement in the irregular appointment of Duda in February 2012, Madonsela said there was evidence that "suggests an invisible hand from her [Pule's] direction and that of [her lover Phosane] Mngqibisa, to which we can legitimately attribute this gross irregularity".

Pule refused to comment.

In December, Madonsela found that Pule had lied to parliament about her involvement with Mngqibisa, who pocketed millions from the ICT Indaba and unethically benefited from her department's spousal allowances.

Madonsela yesterday said Pule's conduct was "improper and constitutes maladministration".

She recommended that the board recover all the money spent unlawfully and that action be taken against Motsoeneng .

Motsoeneng's lawyer, Zola Majavu, said he was studying the protector's report and would respond to it tomorrow.

Madonsela also recommended that action be taken against outgoing SABC group head Lulama Mokhobo for her improper conduct in the approval of Motsoeneng's pay increases.

The public protector said that Communications Minister Yunus Carrim should fill the long-vacant post of COO within 90 days, and define the role of the COO in relation to the group head.

Civil Society Coalition: SOS - In Support of Public Broadcasting, expressed shock at the findings .

"Parliament should take full responsibility for consistently failing to discharge its duties in resolving the issues raised by the public protector, and failure to ensure accountability on the part of the board," SOS's Sekoetlane Phamodi said.