The IBA’s 120-strong staff have issued a unanimous vote of no confidence in their boss Harris Gxaweni, reports Mungo Soggot
THE Independent Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) top officials face sacking chief executive officer Harris Gxaweni or defying the rest of their staff by keeping him.
The authority’s staff representative committee, speaking for 120 staff members, this week unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Gxaweni, and demanded his suspension by the weekend.
Gxaweni is at the centre of the row stemming from mismanagement and financial impropriety currently being probed by the auditor general.
The auditor general’s interim findings expose massive holes in the IBA’s financial administration and irregular spending by some of its councillors.
Staff – whose initial complaints about mismanagement triggered the investigation – have also been outraged by the decision, taken only last week, to give luxury cars to nine managers in a R2-million car allowance scheme. Gxaweni took charge of his new Mercedes E320 last week, just before he went on leave to the Transkei.
In a memorandum prepared following a meeting on Tuesday, staff demanded that “Gxaweni be suspended by not later than Monday May 5”.
Staff also echoed IBA councillor John Matisonn’s call for a judicial commission of inquiry, which they believe should also investigate whether Gxaweni is fit for the job.
Staff were due to make their no-confidence vote public this Friday.
Under IBA legislation only the organisation’s council can axe Gxaweni, and only a full-blown parliamentary investigation can oust any of its councillors.
None of the other IBA councillors have backed Matisonn’s call for an inquiry. The IBA’s co-chairman, Peter de Klerk – who backed Gxaweni’s appointment last year – refuses to discuss the staff’s decision before it comes before the council.
“Of course we will have to deal with it in the course of time,” he said. “You don’t have a press release or anything.”
But the staff’s decision follows an informal vote of no confidence in Gxaweni by the IBA council itself (which the IBA has claimed never happened).
Gxaweni was unavailable for comment.
Matisonn, who did not support Gxaweni’s appointment, declined to comment this week beyond saying that “there can be no cover- ups. If there are abuses they must be rooted out, but there is also an obvious problem about the financial management.”
The IBA’s other co-chairman, Sebilitso Mokone-Matabane, and councillor Lyndall Shope-Mafole, both of whom backed Gxaweni’s appointment, are abroad until later this month.
The staff revolt sets a tantalising scene for the auditor general when he hands over his final report to Parliament next week.
The findings could lead to a full-scale probe by the public protector.
Much of the detail in the interim report concerning some councillors’ enthusiasm for using their taxpayer-funded credit cards was made public last year by disgruntled staffers. The Sunday Times and the Electronic Mail &Guardian published reports on the auditor general’s interim findings. The Sunday Times last week retracted allegations concerning Matisonn and former councillor William Lane.
It is understood that the final report is unlikely to name individual wrongdoers, and will instead focus on weak financial controls.
Meanwhile, further details of Gxaweni’s colourful past seeped out this week. It is believed that Gxaweni has incurred four bad debts since 1988, including R67 374 to the Transkei Building Society from 1988, and R2879 to his former employer, the Transkei Broadcasting Corporation, from 1994.
Connie Molusi, the representative for the Communications Minister, Jay Naidoo, said the auditor general’s final report was being awaited before a decision was taken whether to recommend that President Nelson Mandela appoint a commission of inquiry. Molusi said it was too early to comment on Naidoo’s plans to merge the IBA with the new government-controlled telecommunications regulator, the South African Telecommunications Regulatorary Authority – a move which could provide the opportunity for limiting the IBA’s independence.
Meanwhile, more details of an elaborate plot apparently to discredit Lane emerged this week. The scam involved transferring R811000 to an account in Lane’s name at a Johannesburg branch of ABSA bank.
An IBA letterhead confirming Lane’s credentials was sent to the bank to open the account. It was under the forged signature of De Klerk and was accompanied by a form dressed up as an IBA payslip and by a false ID book. On January 13 1997 a cheque for R811 000 drawn from Investec Bank was deposited in favour of Lane.
On January 17 the bank received an anonymous phone call to warn that a fraud was about to be committed in connection with Lane’s account.
Lane was unavailable for comment this week. The IBA council asked Gxaweni to undergo a polygraph test over the incident. He refused, before departing on leave.