Muthambi may be charged for misleading probe
Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi might face criminal charges after she was identified as one of the witnesses who misled a parliamentary probe into the affairs of the SABC.
Muthambi and former SABC board chairmen Ben Ngubane and Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe are among five witnesses who may have deliberately misled the parliamentary ad hoc committee that investigated governance and financial issues at Auckland Park.
This is according to a detailed report that was quietly tabled before the National Assembly by Speaker Baleka Mbete following pressure from the DA for the report to be made public.
Mbete had been sitting on the report since June 5.
Other people who are said to have misled parliament include former SABC senior executives, chief financial officer James Aguma and company secretary Theresa Geldenhuys.
Muthambi, who is a former minister of communications, could face a charge of contempt and abuse of parliamentary privilege, which is punishable by a fine or a prison term not exceeding 12 months or both in terms of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act.
The two former SABC board chairmen and the two former executives could be subjected to similar sanctions.
The report, which was compiled by parliament’s legal-services division, found that Muthambi’s testimony regarding the appointment of SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who has since been fired, “does not align with the content of minutes of the board meeting”. “To this end, the testimony proffered by the then minister of communications could be seen as an attempt to mislead the inquiry,” reads the report. Maguvhe was found to have misled the parliamentary inquiry after he pleaded ignorance of a labour dispute involving SABC staffers fired for standing up to internal censorship. He presented this evidence to the communications committee. Geldenhuys has been nailed for refusing to submit certain documents to the ad hoc committee, claiming that they were commercially sensitive when they were not. Ngubane, who recently left power utility Eskom under a dark cloud, has been found to have misled parliament regarding the amounts the SABC had spent on a joint venture to host breakfast briefings with the New Age newspaper, owned by the Gupta family.
Parliament’s lawyers have recommended that a further investigation be conducted to establish the authenticity of an e-mail submitted to the ad hoc committee by Aguma purporting to legitimise a memorandum of incorporation that gave Muthambi powers she did not have in relation to the running of the SABC.
Muthambi and Maguvhe had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to print. Ngubane and Geldenhuys could not be reached for comment.
Aguma said that, while he was not aware of the report, he stood by his submission to the ad hoc committee.
“Well, I don’t know about the report in parliament that you are referring to. And you know as usual I have no comment,” said Aguma.
“That was the SABC’s information,” he said.