Summons under way for SABC’s Maguvhe

AD HOC committee members probing the fitness of the SABC’s board unanimously resolved to summons its chairman, Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe, to appear before them after he failed to do so yesterday.

Maguvhe, who was scheduled as the last witness of the day, was a no-show after walking out of proceedings on Wednesday morning.

His absence came as his former board members Ronnie Lubisi and Vusi Mavuso, as well as the SABC’s former chief executive Lulama Mokhobo all pointed to Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the main problem at the public broadcaster.

Yesterday, committee members labelled Maguvhe’s absence as a disrespectful snub to Parliament.

Maguvhe, through the SABC yesterday, issued a statement indicating the reasons as to why he walked out of proceedings. He reiterated his stance that he was not against the inquiry, but said he felt disrespected when his concerns about the availability of documents in Braille were not attended to.

The statement described the hearing as “a miscarriage of justice”.

Committee chairperson Vincent Smith painstakingly detailed how the committee had informed Maguvhe’s representatives that they needed to indicate whether translations would need to be availed.

Smith said that in light of Maguvhe’s absence, a decision would need to be taken on whether to proceed without the chairperson, or summons him.

After a brief discussion in which exasperated members labelled his absence as an act of defiance, an agreement was made to instruct a legal team to get the process of summonsing him under way.

Members agreed they could not proceed without having heard from Maguvhe, and would get him there even if it meant involving the sheriff, police and even the courts.

Earlier in the day, Lubisi and Mavuso told the committee that in July 2014 during a meeting to officially meet then-new Minister for Communication, Faith Muthambi, they were told to hire Motsoeneng as a permanent chief operations officer as he had been “acting for too long”.

They said that just days after this, an emergency board meeting was called late at night where they were informed that they would need to decide on Hlaudi’s appointment.

Mavuso described processes during that meeting as “skop, skiet and donder”, where they were basically coerced into a decision.

Mavuso says that from then on, Motsoeneng became the focal point of the whirlwind which continued to plague the board, which included incidents of the firing of executive members, as well as fundamental policy changes that affected the running of the SABC and its structures without the board’s approval.

Mokhobo labelled her time as chief executive as a difficult one because Hlaudi kept undermining her authority and continued to do so as he was favoured by many of the board members which included two former members she served under.

Mokhobo, who only served two years of her five-year term before resigning, told the committee that her time at the broadcaster became too much for her to bear.

When asked to name some of the board members who were favourable to Motsoeneng, Mokhobo told the committee she was not comfortable doing so because she had been threatened prior to appearing before the inquiry.