SABC executive faces assault charge after allegedly attacking female staffer at Sona

A female staff member of the SABC’s Cape Town broadcasting team has laid charges of assault against the public broadcaster’s head of news, Jimi Matthews.

General secretary of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (Mwasa), Tuwani Gumani, told The Media Online that the case, which was lodged at the Cape Town Central Police Station, stemmed from an incident that took place while the SABC was broadcasting from outside Parliament on the day of the State of the Nation Address (Sona).

The woman, whose name is known to the website, was in charge of the outside broadcast crew, said Matthews attacked her when the broadcaster was unable to receive a feed from within the National Assembly after state security had jammed network signals from within the House resulting in an epic scandal.

The woman, a Mwasa member, was “victimised, harassed and assaulted verbally, physically and psychologically by a male executive manager following a technical glitch beyond her control or that of the crew she supervised”, reads the complaint which the woman lodged with the CCMA.

Gumani said Matthews “breached all standard protocols and the incident happened in full view of the applicant’s colleagues and subordinates”.

“Further, upon receiving an incident report and being expressly notified that the conduct of the executive manager was unwelcome, the executive manager threatened the applicant with more deliberate and purposeful violence if any similar incident occurs in future,” the complaint read.

SABC spokesman, Kaizer Kganyago said the SABC cannot comment on the complaint lodged with the police.”

 “The SABC can confirm that a formal grievance has been lodged on the 19 February 2015, seven days after the alleged incident.”