Fire Muthambi – Parly inquiry
COMMUNICATIONS Minister Faith Muthambi should be fired, the long-awaited report by the parliamentary inquiry into the affairs of the SABC has recommended.
It was finally tabled for consideration in the National Assembly yesterday, with the majority of MPs united in their recommendations.
DA MP Mike Waters said the 82-page report “recommends that, given the minister’s violations, Parliament must refer any violations of the constitution, Privileges Act, the Executive Code of Ethics and/or the Broadcasting Act to the Ethics Committee and/or the Presidency for processing.”
Waters said that the report “has all the ingredients of a Shakespeare tragedy: treachery, corruption, deceit, intimidation, abuse of power, trickery and sheer greed”.
“The main characters in this tragedy are the honourable Faith Muthambi and Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng, likened to Lady Macbeth and Lord Macbeth, with the journalists and staff being the victims.”
EFF MP Fana Mokoena said the parliamentary inquiry revealed an SABC that “controlled journalistic practices” and this was done “for the purposes of propaganda”.
“We heard it was used as a tool of a much larger scheme of handing over the SABC to the corrupt Gupta brothers,” he said.
He agreed that Muthambi should go.
“We sincerely hope that the president will… do the right thing for the first time in his life,” said Mokoena.
Introducing the contents of the report, Vincent Smith, the chairman of the ad hoc committee that conducted the probe, said despite accusations by SABC executive Motsoeneng and former board chairman Mbulaheni Maguvhe that the process was unfair and tantamount to a “kangaroo court, the inquiry took place with maximum transparency, it took place with absolute fairness…”
He added: “We recommend that the National Assembly formally dissolve the SABC board, including three executive board members.”
There are no non-executive directors on the board.
Smith outlined the breakdown of corporate governance at the broadcaster and the waste of public money, which included R5.1 billion in irregular expenditure.
“This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue,” he said. “The ad hoc committee recommends that the process of appointing an interim board and eventually a permanent board must be expedited,” said Smith.
ACDP MP Steve Smith told Parliament: “This has been one of the most thorough and far-reaching inquires that I have been involved in at Parliament and my thanks to all involved and the chairperson and all the staff.
“This is what parliamentary oversight should look like and this is what the public expect of us as parliamentarians.
“We were united across political lines in our focus of getting to the bottom of the rot that has beset the SABC.
“The inquiry made for riveting public viewing, with many citizens being encouraged to see us working together to expose problems at the public broadcaster.
“What was also most disconcerting was the intimidation and death threats experienced by certain witnesses, mainly among the SABC Eight.
“We consider these threats, which even continued while we were holding our hearing, as a threat against Parliament itself.
“Witnesses should be free to give evidence before any parliamentary committee without any threats or intimidation.
“It also became very clear that there had been significant political interference at the SABC over many years.
“While this was not confined to the present minister, the honourable Faith Muthambi alone, the committee found that the minister displayed incompetence in carrying out her responsibilities as the shareholder representative,” Smith said.