DA to seek a review of Hlaudi’s hearing

THE DA has vowed to demand a transcript of the “whitewashed” internal disciplinary hearing against SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and take the decision on review, its federal executive chairman James Selfe has promised.

Motsoeneng was found not guilty on all charges at his hearing on Saturday evening, two months after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that Motsoeneng be suspended and face a disciplinary hearing.

“The DA is unsurprised that the outcome of… Motsoeneng’s disciplinary hearing has been exposed to be the whitewash we always suspected it would be,” Selfe said.

“This follows the DA’s review application in which we sought to have Motsoeneng suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary inquiry that needed to be independent, fair, and comprehensive,” he said.

In addition to seeking access to the transcript, the DA would almost certainly take this decision on review on the grounds that it made a mockery of the rule of law, the public protector’s report, and Western Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis’s judgment.

“This comes after the chairperson of the disciplinary ‘discharged’ the charges levelled against Motsoeneng. Motsoeneng pleaded not guilty to all three charges levelled against him for gross dishonesty, orchestrating purges, and improperly dismissing employees at the national broadcaster.”

The chairman of the disciplinary was only appointed a week ago and did not properly allow himself to consider all the facts.

In addition to this, the hearing was truncated.

Key witnesses were not called or were unavailable to provide key evidence in relation to Motsoeneng’s gross misconduct, and the disciplinary inquiry ordered by the public protector called “When Governance and Ethics Fail” was not satisfactorily engaged, which “is bizarre, considering that this is the disciplinary inquiry the public protector ordered”.

Further, the judgments by the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal were not duly engaged even though asserting that Motsoeneng was in fact not a fit and proper person and that his permanence at the SABC was irrational, Selfe said. – ANA