The SABC board wants group chief executive Solly Mokoetle to explain why he should not be suspended pending a disciplinary hearing - and will be in Parliament next week to tell MPs why its board chairman, Ben Ngubane, should go.
The corporate governance crisis at the public broadcaster came to a head yesterday when Mokoetle is understood to have walked out of a tense meeting of the board, where the decision was taken. Ngubane was not present. Last night efforts to lobby in Mokoetle's support were under way. "I am not aware of any threat to my job. I am still continuing with my work," he said.
SABC insiders said Mokoetle had already been served with a letter from the board, but it is understood that this has yet to happen. An SABC source said the board wanted to institute disciplinary charges against Mokoetle before it meets the National Assembly's committee on communications on Tuesday. Labour law states that Mokoetle has to be given a chance to make representations as to why he should not be suspended. The board will then have to consider his response and only then can it take a decision whether or not to suspend him.
Tensions between board members, its chairman and management have been mounting since Ngubane and Mokoetle's decision to make Phil Molefe permanent head of news earlier this year. This was seen as "the last straw", rather than the main issue. A board member last night said that while the interim SABC board had dealt with the SABC's immediate financial crisis, this had merely been a symptom of a deeper malaise - a lack of proper governance and capacity. These matters had not been addressed. Efforts by the new board to deal with them had to a degree been confounded by Ngubane - whose role will also come under the microscope when the board meets the MPs on Tuesday.
A board member last month complained that the situation will soon reach a point where either the CEO or the board would have to go.
Source: IoL
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