Opposition calls for Muthambi to get the sack
• Opposition parties urge president to fire Muthambi after National Assembly adopts final report into crisis at the public broadcaster
Emboldened by the adoption of the final report into the mess at the SABC, opposition parties on Tuesday called for the sacking of Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, saying she had wilfully violated the Constitution.
THE HIGH COURT IN CAPE TOWN RULED IN DECEMBER THAT MOTSOENENG SHOULD NOT OCCUPY ANY POSITION
EFF MP FANA MOKOENA SAID THE PARTY SUPPORTED THE REPORT AND CALLED FOR THE REMOVAL OF MUTHAMBI
Emboldened by the adoption of the final report into the mess at the SABC on Tuesday, opposition parties called for the sacking of Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, saying that she had wilfully violated the Constitution.
The National Assembly formally adopted the report by the parliamentary ad hoc committee that probed the issues at the public broadcaster.
Muthambi, who has been blamed for the crisis at the SABC, was not in Parliament on Tuesday as MPs debated the report. Significantly, the report suggests President Jacob Zuma should “reconsider” Muthambi’s “desirability” in the Cabinet.
Members of the ad hoc committee have suggested that Muthambi might have violated the Constitution by, among other things, acting in a way that “improperly” benefited Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the former chief operating officer. Motsoeneng, who featured prominently during witness testimony, has also been blamed for the mess at the public broadcaster.
During hearings in December, witnesses alleged that Muthambi strong-armed the SABC board into supporting the appointment of Motsoeneng in 2014, despite a report by the public protector that found that he had fabricated a matric qualification, purged those he disagreed with and irregularly increased his salary from R1.5m to R2.4m in one year.
The public protector recommended that he be disciplined. But the SABC went on to confirm his appointment as chief operating officer. The High Court in Cape Town ruled in December that Motsoeneng should not occupy any position at the SABC until the public protector’s report was set aside or new disciplinary processes against him were finalised.
While the ad hoc committee’s final report does not make direct findings against Motsoeneng, it points out that Muthambi interfered in SABC board matters and undermined the Broadcasting Act.
She has also been criticised for the illegal amendments she made to the SABC’s memorandum of incorporation, which gave her and Motsoeneng total control of the broadcaster.
The amendment of the memorandum of incorporation is seen as one of the catalysts in the demise of the SABC board and the complete collapse of good governance.
Although ANC MPs have agreed her alleged role in the crisis at the public broadcaster constituted a serious breach of the ethics code, they argued it was not for the ad hoc committee to recommend she be fired. They said the matter should be referred to the ethics committee for further investigation and, thereafter, the president should decide the minister’s fate.
DA deputy chief whip Mike Waters said during the debate on Tuesday that the party would write to the public protector to ask her to investigate Muthambi for violations of the Constitution, the Privileges Act, the Executive Code of Ethics and/or the Broadcasting Act. “The great late George Michael said, ‘we gotta have Faith’. Unfortunately, the DA no longer has faith in Minister Muthambi and she must be fired,” said Waters.
He described the 82-page report as having all the ingredients of a Shakespearean tragedy, from treachery, corruption, deceit, intimidation and abuse of power to trickery and greed.
“The main characters in this tragedy are … Muthambi and … Motsoeneng, likened to Lady Macbeth and Lord Macbeth, with the journalists and staff being the victims,” said Waters.
EFF MP Fana Mokoena said on Tuesday the party supported the report and called for the removal of Muthambi.
The crises at the public broadcaster were a “symptom of a fascist and apartheid state”, meant to crush the opposition and promote factional interests, said Mokoena.
Inkatha Freedom Party MP Narend Singh said the president should “seriously consider removing the current minister”.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM), the only party to object to the adoption of the report, said it did not support its adoption mainly because the ad hoc committee had denied Motsoeneng the opportunity to state his side of the story.
However, UDM MP and the party’s chief whip, Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, said Muthambi must “bite the dust”.
The SABC interim board, which is due to be appointed in the coming weeks, will be tasked with implementing some of the report’s recommendations. They include instituting a forensic investigation into dodgy SABC deals, contracts, salary increases and bonus payments and looking into the validity of the board’s memorandum of incorporation in concert with the portfolio committee on communications.
The office of the ANC chief whip in Parliament said: “The interim board, once appointed, should restore stability by taking decisive action against those SABC executives who failed to execute their fiduciary duties, who flouted the rules and who threatened and manipulated the thousands of good people working at the SABC. The interim board must also ensure that a forensic investigation is conducted in order for those who are found to have collapsed the SABC to be held to account.”