SABC testimonies not ‘adding up’

AS THE last day of testimony in the SABC hearings wrapped up on Friday‚ one thing was clear: lies were told under oath.

On Friday‚ former board chairs Dr Ben Ngubane and Zandile Ellen Tshabalala testified before the ad hoc committee but for committee chair Vincent Smith‚ things were just not adding up.

“Somebody had misled parliament‚ somebody has not taken us seriously‚ and somebody has to pay the price. There can’t be such grave contradictions‚” he said.

“This is perjury. This is deliberate misleading . . . quite frankly, somebody must go to jail.”

The most glaring contradiction was between the testimonies on the day – Ngubane testifying that there was no political interference in the SABC‚ and Tshabalala testifying there was “gross political interference”.

This‚ she said came from different quarters but mostly from the SACP‚ ANC and DA.

Tshabalala said she wouldn’t publicly reveal names‚ but said someone from the SACP had called her early on in her tenure requesting she support then communications minister Yunus Carrim on the issue of encryption of set top boxes.

She testified that she had received calls from people who did not like Hlaudi Motsoeneng, urging her to remove him.

Ngubane‚ who chaired the board between 2009 and 2013‚ used his testimony to refute the earlier testimony of former head of news Phil Molefe‚ which he said had tarnished his name.

Molefe testified that Motsoeneng and Ngubane had come to him in a bid to get him to sign off on a R500 000 salary increase. When he refused‚ Molefe testified‚ Motsoeneng had said: “This is not our man‚ I’m going to Pretoria tonight”.

But on Friday‚ Ngubane could not remember the statement and denied such a meeting took place.

“I deny that conversation. I don’t even remember such a meeting. I can’t remember because I think it never happened.”

He also refuted Molefe’s testimony on the New Age breakfast shows, saying that it was Molefe who had brought the idea to them following a trip to India to find a partner for a proposed 24-hour news channel.

Ngubane said Molefe had already run 15 of the shows when the board asked him to explain why he was running them. He presented a financial case to the board‚ showing the advertising revenue to be made.

He also refuted testimony by former SABC journalist Vuyo Mvoko that Morning Live resources were used in the making of the TNA Breakfast Show, saying “they did not cost us any money”.

Ngubane also managed to deny his own testimony made earlier in the day in which he said: “My view in this country is in trouble. People hate each other. They group people into camps‚ you are in the wrong camp, so I take you out‚ that’s how I view the public protector’s report.”

However‚ pressed on this‚ he denied having said this and instead questioned where the public protector had sourced information as the report was “not based on fact”.

All testimony were collated into a working document this weekend and will be forwarded to MPs today to “apply their minds”. The committee will meet again on Thursday and Friday to put together a draft report. — TMG