Now SABC boss seeks bonus for Hlaudi

Board told that Motsoeneng ’holds the key’ to extending what many say amounts to a dodgy deal

THE SABC’s acting CEO, James Aguma, wants to pay Hlaudi Motsoeneng a bonus for negotiating a questionable deal between the SABC and MultiChoice — three years ago.

The Sunday Times has seen a copy of a letter by Aguma that was distributed to the board this week. It says the SABC’s chief operating officer should be paid a success fee because he “single-handedly negotiated this contract”.

Motsoeneng clinched the five-year contract with MultiChoice for R570 million in 2013.

In terms of the deal, SABC would supply MultiChoice’s DStv platform with the 24-hour news channel on 404, an entertainment channel called Encore and access to the public broadcaster’s archives.

Industry insiders said the SABC was being grossly underpaid, pointing out that e.tv receives about R400 million a year for providing MultiChoice with a single news channel, eNCA.

“It essentially means the SABC was robbed of R2-billion over five years,” said one source with direct knowledge of the negotiations. Two independent sources concurred.

Despite this, Aguma’s letter to the chairman of the board’s public commercial services committee, Aaron Tshidzumba, says: “The SABC owes the COO compensation for the success of the existing contract including the Encore channel that amounts to several millions of rand.”

Aguma’s letter points out that the MultiChoice deal expires on July 3 2018 and negotiations for an extension must begin “at least one year in advance”.

Aguma says the SABC would have to consider asking Motsoeneng “to assist in the negotiations to extend the contract with the understanding that he holds the key to the success of this endeavour”.

The Sunday Times understands the issue was raised at the SABC’s board meeting on Friday but was unable to confirm whether the board approved or rejected the request for the bonus.

Aguma has also come under fire for bypassing tender procedures to pay auditing firm PwC R10-million to probe a R370-million tax liability raised by the auditor-general — a job that should have been done by the state broadcaster’s own accountants.

The payment to PwC — which Aguma previously worked for — ballooned from an initial R185 000 to R10 million despite PwC having no contract and the SABC being unable to find an audit trail of the deal.

Documents obtained by the Sunday Times reveal that on September 9 last year the acting CEO approved deviating from normal procurement processes in extending PwC’s contract without going out to tender.

Treasury rules say government contracts worth more than R500 000 must be subject to a competitive bidding process to ensure taxpayers get the best value for money, unless a strong case can be made for urgency.

Aguma said hiring PwC without following normal procurement processes was justified because the audit firm had previously been hired to help the SABC address qualifications related to its tax issues.

But SABC sources said this could not be used as an excuse for not going out to tender.

“Lack of planning and incompetence is not one of the reasons you can give when asking for a devi-

It essentially means the SABC was robbed of R2-billion over five years

ation,” said one.

“There is a whole tax department at the SABC whose job is to do exactly that for the whole year. To pay an audit firm R10-million to do their job is mind-boggling.”

The documents show that on October 22 Aguma’s PA, Nomsa Dunster, asked the SABC’s procurement division to approve a purchase order of R10-million to pay PwC.

This set off a flurry of correspondence and queries from officials. These included why they could find “no audit trail” of how PwC was initially hired, how its fees had jumped from R185 000 and why Aguma wanted to pay PwC R10-million “with no contract signed” when it had quoted R8.25-million.

SABC spokesman Vuyo Mthembu refused to comment on the bonus request or the PwC payment. “The SABC’s stance is that it will not conduct its operations in the media and these allegations have no merit.”

PwC spokeswoman Sanchia Temkin declined to comment, citing “client confidentiality”.