SABC boss’s court battle could settle debate on public protector’s reports
SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s legal battle to retain his job will proceed to the Supreme Court of Appeal, where it is likely to see a landmark judgment on the powers of the public protector.
Yesterday, Judge Ashton Schippers in the Western Cape High Court granted Motsoeneng and the SABC leave to appeal his October ruling, which ordered the broadcaster to suspend its chief operations officer and institute disciplinary proceedings against him.
That was in response to an application from the DA seeking to force the SABC to uphold adverse findings against Motsoeneng by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released last February.
Madonsela had found that Mot- soeneng had misled the SABC about his lack of a matric and that his salary increase from R1.5 million to R2.4m, as well as staff appointments, merited a probe.
Schippers foresaw no chance of success for an appeal based on the argument that he erred in his earlier finding, that the SABC and Communications Minister Faith Muthambi had rejected Madonsela’s directives and appointed Motsoeneng without a rational basis for doing so.
However, Schippers was allowing the appeal because he believed that it was crucial for the court to settle the debate about the status of the public protector’s reports as being “critical to the effective functioning of our democracy”.
He said a perception that such directives could be ignored would rob the public of protection against abuse of power.
Schippers previously ruled that the public protector’s findings did not carry the same force as court rulings, but that organs of state had to implement them unless they could provide cogent reasons for not doing so.
He also granted the DA an interim order suspending Motsoeneng pending the outcome of the appeal. Motsoeneng signalled that he would immediately appeal.
DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said he believed Thursday’s ruling had vindicated the DA’s belief that the rulings of the public protector were binding.
Asked how he felt, Motsoeneng said: “I enjoy life, so there should be no problem. I’ll respect the findings, but things carry on.” – ANA