Tribunal sets aside SABC decision to pay music legends but says R2.4m debt has become prescribed

The Special Tribunal on Tuesday found that the 2016 decision by SABC executives to award R50,000 each to 53 music legends was irregular and unlawful.

However, the tribunal said the R2.425m debt that the Special Investigating Unit sought from a number of former SABC executives, including Hlaudi Motsoeneng, to pay back to the public broadcaster had become prescribed.

On September 30 2016, a business case for the payments to music legends was compiled by Motsoeneng, who was then COO. The payments were meant for artists who supported the SABC but did not receive needle time royalties before 1996. Only 53 of the 180 music legends on the list were paid before the project was stopped.

The SABC and the SIU sought to recover the R50,000 payments, from the then SABC executives, in the proceedings before the tribunal.

The SABC said if the 2016 decision to pay was not inquired into by the tribunal, it might be obliged to honour payments to the remaining music legends on the list.

In their arguments, the SIU and SABC alleged that the public broadcaster did not have a policy on which the payment decision was based. They argued that by making this decision, the former executives collectively acted in flagrant disregard of the SABC’s internal policies, they were recklessly and grossly negligent in the performance of their duties and abused their power as SABC executives. They said that, as a result, the SABC incurred wasteful and reckless expenditure.

Motsoeneng raised a number of arguments, including the fact that the matter did not fall within the mandate of the SIU. Motsoeneng also said the matter was stillborn because he was not acting in his personal capacity, but on behalf of the SABC.

In her findings, tribunal president judge Lebogang Modiba said there was no policy within the SABC authorising the decisions.

“Neither was the music legends project authorised in terms of the SABC’s annual and operational plan for the relevant financial years. The  board did not issue a resolution authorising the music legends project,” Modiba said.

She said the identification of music legends who would benefit from the project was arbitrary as there was no approved criteria.

“Yet the SABC funds reserved for emergencies were used to fund the project. The SABC derived no benefit from the project. The funds used to pay  music legends represents a loss to it,” Modiba said.

She said the debt sought by the SIU had prescribed as three years had passed before the SIU launched proceedings to recover the debt.  

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