Yes I was ill: SABC CEO

SABC CEO Lulama Makhobo said on Monday she submitted the medical certificate required as proof for her absence

SAPA

August 6, 2012

SABC CEO Lulama Makhobo said on Monday she submitted the medical certificate required as proof for her absence during the disciplinary hearing of news head Phil Molefe.

“The medical certificate was submitted. I was indeed very ill. The board was informed and agreed I did what I needed to do, and the board was comfortable that I had done what I needed to do,” she told reporters in Johannesburg.

“Any assertions cast on that, unfortunately I don’t know where they are coming from.”

There had been reports that Makhobo was ordered by the chair of the disciplinary hearing to provide proof as to why she had been absent.

None of the people present at the press briefing, including chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and deputy board chairman Thami Ka Plaatjie, were willing to comment further about Molefe’s disciplinary hearing.

Meanwhile, Makhobo said the SABC was on course to launch its new 24-hour channel next month. The new channel would broadcast in different languages and would first be launched on DSTV. It would later become part of digital terrestrial television, headed by the communications department.

Makhobo said the channel would enable the broadcaster to air more of the content produced by its reporters, as at present SABC only aired 20 percent of this material.

Trials and recruitment of new staff for the new channel had already begun.