Former SABC interim board members slam SIU report as 'fatally flawed'

Former SABC interim board members reacted with curiosity and dismay to a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report into a R185m security contract.

The contract - for the provision of security services to the SABC for five years - was awarded during the tenure of the interim board, which was appointed in 2017.

The losing bidder, Mjayeli Security Services, is seeking to have the contract set aside.

An SIU report into this contract said: “The SIU found evidence which indicated that there were irregularities in the procurement of the services from and subsequent awarding of the contract to Mafoko by the interim board … As an accounting authority they failed to act in the best interest of the SABC.”

In its final report, the SIU found that the bid adjudication committee had been irregularly constituted, that there had been financial misconduct, and that the Public Finance Management Act had been contravened.

But the interim board, speaking on Tuesday, said that of all the corruption files they referred to the SIU, their decision to award a R185m contract to Mafoko Security Patrol was the only matter where a recommendation for criminal action was made.

“The SIU recommendations are fatally flawed legally and contain material errors of fact,” Khanyisile Kweyama, former chair of the interim board, said on Tuesday in Sandton.

“We were very surprised. From the time that a draft report was issued which started to suggest that there could be wrongdoing on our part," Kweyame said.

She added that the interim board “acted at all times on legal advice, which clearly stated that it was not a rubber stamp but was required to apply its mind and act on its best judgement".

"The Mjayeli tender had been rejected twice before the supply chain management recommended it at the last minute,” Kweyama said.

Within six months of their appointment, a parliamentary inquiry found grave abuse of power and widespread fraud and maladministration under the previous leadership at the SABC, in which Hlaudi Motsoeneng played a prominent part.

“When we arrived at the SABC we found an institution riddled with corruption which had become endemic and systematic … We were always conscious of governance processes, we were always conscious of doing the right thing. We were very surprised that we would be the ones that are now fingered to be doing wrong.

“When whistleblowers alerted us to the fact that there had been wrongdoing in the past, we were the ones that took it to the SIU. To our dismay we even felt those whistleblowers had not been engaged vigorously as they should have been,” Kweyama said.

The SIU intends to bring an application to declare those interim board members who were part of the tender process delinquent and have them pay back all the money the SABC lost.

Kweyama is implicated together with veteran journalists Mathatha Tsedu and John Matisonn, human rights lawyer Krish Naidoo and former ANC national executive committee member Febe Potgieter-Gqubule.

Tsedu said if they did not make a decision, they would have been left with a national key point without security.

“In our view, the prudent thing to do was to go with the number two company so that the SABC does not suffer. And that is how this decision happened. The SABC has not suffered any losses as a result of the decision we have made.

“We are now seen to be the people who are grossly wrong and should be reported for criminal action and even declared as delinquents,”

SIU said they should have restarted the process instead of going for the second positioned tenderer.

The SIU said Bongumusa Makhathini had brought the matter to their attention, which Potgieter-Gqubule denied.

“The actual reference came from the interim board. That was part of our handing over report to the SIU. It’s just among some of the factual inaccuracies,” said Potgieter-Gqubule.