Marion Edmunds
THE Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation’s (BopBC) new highly paid chief executive, Cawe Mhlati, has been stung with accusations of reneging on agreements with the SABC after less than a week in the broadcaster’s hot
SABC officials have criticised her for her conduct in meetings to discuss the future of public broadcasting in South Africa. The SABC’s Leslie Xingwa complained this week that Mhlati had tried to undermine agreements already brokered by the Joint Integration Board — the body discussing the merging of public broadcasters into a national public broadcasting service — although she had attended the meeting only as an observer. (The North West government had pulled BopBC out of the negotiations at the end of October, ending official participation.)
SABC sources say they suspect that Mhlati and her new deputy, Abbey Chikane, had been coaxed into the BopBC by the North West government so that they could represent the corporation aggressively, should they return to the negotiating table.
Mhlati was coaxed away from a top job at M-Net by a R35 000 a month salary and ” great career prospects”. Chikane is being paid R30 000 a month but is still able to run his advertising business, Chikane Hunt Lascaris, at the same time. Both are seen as tough, persuasive negotiators with excellent political
Xingwa charged this week that Mhlati’s and Chikane’s appointments had gone against a gentlemen’s agreement that nobody would be appointed to top positions until the fate of the public broadcasters had been resolved.
Her job and her deputy’s were not advertised and only they and one other were interviewed for the posts by the acting North West MEC for broadcasting, Molefi Sefularo.
The appointments also come at a time when BopBC staff are taking legal action to force the North West government to pay out retrenchment packages and close BopBC down.
Despite the protest from staff, the North West government appears anxious to keep BopBC going, even if it is in a reduced form. “We believe that there is life after integration,” said Sefularo, who has also announced the government’s intention of appointing a new board for BopBC.
Mhlati was “too busy” to respond to inquries this week. She and Chikane are on six-month