Hlaudi’s R167m Zuma TV deal
SABC strongman goes over heads of senior staff to push through cushy contract in just one week
SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng overruled his staff to push through a R167-million contract with a production company co-owned by President Jacob Zuma’s daughter Gugu Zuma-Ncube.
The chief operating officer reversed a recommendation by a review panel of six members, who had decided not to renew the popular Uzalo drama series for a second season.
Their concerns were that there was no proper business plan, the budget was “about 10 times that of a 13-part series” and there had been problems during the show’s first season with “writing, aesthetics and delivery”. It was originally bought as a limited-season “telenovela and that format ends at some stage, it’s not a soap”.
But when Motsoeneng heard about the decision, he stepped in and the three-year contract was “negotiated and signed off” within a week.
News of Motsoeneng’s intervention comes amid a growing backlash against him following his decision that violent protests should not be covered on SABC news programmes, and allegations of political interference.
This week, several foundations called for a judicial commission of inquiry into the public broadcaster. They included the Chief Albert Luthuli, Desmond and Leah Tutu, Robert Sobukwe, Helen Suzman, FW de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki foundations.
The SABC is also facing a cash crisis and is negotiating loans of R1.5-billion as its reserves sink. One of the reasons given by insiders for the cash crunch is increased programming costs.
But the SABC was unfazed this week by the latest controversy.
“The SABC can confirm that the COO overruled the decision not to renew Uzalo, based on performance in its genre and growth in revenue,” said spokesman Kaizer Kganyago.
But a respected TV producer said he was told by SABC staff members that Uzalo had become “a political tool at the SABC and that everyone was told it was a product of the president’s daughter and that they must find money for it”. It airs three times a week on SABC1. The SABC paid R50.5-million for the first season of Uzalo. The review panel met in April last year to discuss a proposal by Stained Glass Productions, which is owned by Zuma-Ncube and Kobedi “Pepsi” Pokane, to extend the contract for a further three years, at a cost of R167-million.
The deal involves four seasons of the drama a year, with each season comprising 13 episodes. Season two began in February this year.
One of the panel members, who asked not to be named, said: “Someone told Gugu we were not going to recommission Uzalo for the second season and apparently she and Pepsi went to Hlaudi to complain about our decision. The next thing we heard was that our decision not to recommission was overruled from above.”
Kganyago added: “The COO meets from time to time with production houses and all other stakeholders to address various issues. The SABC does not discuss its contractual matters in the public space.”
An internal e-mail seen by the Sunday Times says that “at over R167-million this business plan would have to be signed by the board” and “one would imagine that this kind of budget would face the same fate as
SUSPENDED national police commissioner Riah Phiyega is making a last attempt to keep her job.
She has applied to the High Court in Pretoria to review her suspension. She was suspended in October last year by President Jacob Zuma following recommendations by the Marikana commission to investigate her fitness to hold office.
She said the commission’s findings were “riddled with inconsistencies” and had “impugned my dignity and reputation worldwide”.
The application comes as an inquiry chaired by Judge Neels Claassen, established to determine Phiyega’s position, is expected to deliver its findings and recommendations soon.
The Marikana commission’s chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, and the two assessors, advocates Pingla Hemraj SC and Bantubonke Tokota SC, were cited as the three respondents in the application. Tokota confirmed that he had been served with a summons. Farlam and Hemraj said they had not been served.
In her affidavit, Phiyega said the commission had erred in its recommendations.
The commission recommended that the abilities of Phiyega and North West police commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo be investigated. Mbombo has taken early retirement.
The Marikana commission’s report said: “The leadership of the police, on the highest level, appears to have taken the decision not to give the true version of how it came about that the ‘tactical option’ was implemented on the afternoon of 16 August and to conceal the fact that the plan to be implemented was hastily put together without [public order policing] inputs or evaluation.”
On that day, 34 striking miners were shot dead by police at Marikana, near Rustenburg.
The commission also found that Phiyega was evasive under cross-examination during the inquiry.
Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, who represented the families of the miners at the inquiry, said yesterday that Phiyega was “within her rights” to ask for a review of the recommendations.
But he said she would have to overcome major legal hurdles.
“She will probably have to advance reasons why the application was brought at this late stage,” he said.
In her affidavit, Phiyega said she had been in office for 64 days when the miners were killed.
She said the publication of the commission’s report had a “tremendous impact on me, both as a person and as the national commissioner”.
She added: “There can be no doubt that such findings, if inaccurate, or vitiated by illegality, irrationality, bad faith or malice, are susceptible to judicial review.”
Phiyega said the Marikana report was riddled with serious contradictions, which showed that the commissioners had not “applied their minds in preparing the report and in making the findings”.
Her attorneys had closely studied the report.
“It is clear the report and the evidence leaders’ heads of arguments contain similarities of not less than 113 instances which could not have been accidental but a deliberate cutand-paste exercise which resulted in the contradictions in the report and a failure to apply the mind by the respondents in making independent decisions, engaging in an independent analysis of the facts, and applying independent reasoning.
“A failure to apply an independent mind in decision-making is susceptible to review,” said Phiyega.
She has also urged the court to grant her application, saying her reason for applying for a review a year after the inquiry’s findings was because she had to focus first on the Claassen inquiry. ‘‘I have very strong prospects of success in this review application as evidenced by what I have stated . . . Nobody is prejudiced by the delay.”
While admitting that her legal action had missed the six-month deadline, she said she would be “severely prejudiced if condonation is not granted, given the adverse findings made against me which invariably impugned my dignity and reputation worldwide”.