THE South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC’s) management fiasco continued on Friday when CEO Dali Mpofu was again suspended.<\/p>\n
Mpofu’s suspension — for the second time in a month — apparently happened because the board had overcome a legal technicality pointed out in a high court judg ment that had reinstated him earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Describing his suspension on Friday as “madness”, Mpofu said he was sure the Johannesburg High Court would “clear it all up on Monday” and that he would return to his office immediately.<\/p>\n
He said he wasn’t angry, “just saddened, because this is a public institution and it is getting hurt by a few individuals”. <\/p>\n
He said his suspension had been “resuscitated” because the SABC board’s application for leave to appeal the high court judgment had effectively suspended the finding in favour of his reinstatement.<\/p>\n
Mpofu was initially suspended on May 6, hours after he had suspended head of news Snuki Zikalala for allegedly leaking information to the media.<\/p>\n
Mpofu successfully challenged his suspension on procedural grounds in the Johannesburg High Court .<\/p>\n
The SABC board, under fire from ANC MPs who appointed it but then passed a motion of no-confidence in it this month, will appeal on Monday against the May 19 judgment that found Mpofu’ s suspension on May 6 to have been unprocedural because the board meeting at which the decision was taken had not been properly constituted.<\/p>\n
Hannes du Buisson, president of the Broadcast, Electronic, Media & Allied Workers Union, which has 1000 members at the broadcaster, said Mpofu’s second suspension was “worrying”. <\/p>\n
If this could happen to senior executives, he said, it showed there was “no regard” for rules and regulations for employees further down the chain of command. <\/p>\n
Du Buisson said the SABC’s regulations clearly stated that employees could be suspended only for “serious misconduct” such as fraud or theft, which had not been alleged in this instance.<\/p>\n
“The board has a fiduciary duty always to act in the best interest of the organisation,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Had this fiasco happened in any private company, the shareholders would have long ago called a meeting and dismissed the entire board.”<\/p>\n
Senior SABC staffers have sent a memorandum to ANC headquarters, Parliament and other stakeholders, calling for a commission of inquiry into the SABC and accusing the board of interfering with the executive management and disregarding the principles of corporate governance. <\/p>\n
The SABC board had not commented by the time of going to press.<\/p>\n