Give me my job back — or R16m, says former SABC boss
The war between the SABC and axed chief operations officer Chris Maroleng is far from over.
On Friday, Maroleng filed papers at the labour court in Johannesburg challenging his dismissal.
Maroleng wants the court to direct the SABC to reinstate him to his plush job and set aside his dismissal, or alternatively pay him R16m as part of the “unexpired portion of his employment contract of four years”.
He argued in the papers that his dismissal in April last year was unlawful and should, therefore, be set aside.
Maroleng was dismissed after being found guilty of three of the four charges he faced.
He was found guilty of approving a monthly acting allowance of just over R15,000 for an employee, Carmen Schneider, despite a written human resources decision to the contrary.
He was also found guilty on two charges relating to protecting former acting group executive for sport Marcia Mahlalela.
Mahlalela resigned from the public broadcaster before facing a disciplinary hearing into the hiring of sportscaster Robert Marawa on a R5.5m, three-year contract.
Mahlalela resigned after being charged at the conclusion of a two-week investigation.
Maroleng was found not guilty for how he dealt with Mahlalela’s resignation.
Maroleng was appointed in January 2018, tasked with cleaning up the SABC.
He took over from Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who was fired in June 2017 for bringing the SABC into disrepute.
An internal disciplinary hearing found that Motsoeneng had lied about his qualifications, purged the SABC of staff, promoted people and raised salaries without following the correct procedures.
In the papers filed at the labour court on Friday, Maroleng argued that individual board members jointly pay for the costs of the application, which includes an attorney and two counsels.
He also argued the SABC’s group CEO, Madoda Mxakwe, board chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini and lawyer Sandile July have been hell bent on dismissing employees they do not like.
“Mxakwe, July and Makhathini collectively and individually acted in an unconstitutional manner in ensuring that they built up a case against me and I be dishonourably and illegally dismissed of my employment,” Maroleng argued.
He further states that Mxakwe and Makhathini conspired to have him fired.
He claims he was denied the right to an appeal by the SABC.
In the papers, Maroleng argued that Makhathini acted improperly by barring him from appealing internally.
Maroleng challenged this position: “SABC’s disciplinary code and procedure does not provide that there is no internal appeal for executive directors.”
Contacted for comment on Saturday, Maroleng confirmed to Times Select that he filed the papers, but said he could not comment further as the matter was before the courts.
However, he described his dismissal as harsh, especially when compared with his predecessor, Motsoeneng.
Mxakwe did not respond to queries sent on Saturday.
SABC acting spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo said: “The SABC is not aware of the recent papers filed at the labour court by Mr Maroleng.”
Seapolelo said the SABC could confirm that Maroleng faced serious charges, which prompted the SABC to conduct a disciplinary process.
“On 23 April 2019 after due consideration of the findings and recommendations of a disciplinary process, the SABC board resolved to terminate Maroleng’s employment contract.
“Following this decision, Maroleng approached the CCMA regarding his dismissal but later withdrew his arbitration case,” Seapolelo said.
“Should the SABC receive court papers from Mr Maroleng, the corporation will respond accordingly.”