Peta Thornycroft
The former co-chair of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), accused of misusing her company credit card, has recently landed a plum government job.
Dr Sebilitso Mokone-Matebane has been offered a consultancy with Sentech, the national signal distributor owned by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
This means all three disgraced IBA councillors have found employment with the government since being forced to resign their positions earlier this year after they were roasted by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
Former IBA founding co-chair Pieter de Klerk now advises the government on broadcast policy, and former councillor Lyndall Shope-Mafole was appointed as an adviser to Communications Minister Jay Naidoo.
Matebane confirmed she had been offered the job by Sentech boss Nel Smuts who said he hired her because of her qualifications and skills.
Neither Matebane nor Shope-Mafole would give straight answers when asked this week whether they had paid back the taxpayers’ money the auditor general has said they owe the IBA. De Klerk was not available for comment.
Acting IBA chief executive officer Roy Williams confirmed none of the three had repaid any money. Deputy auditor-general Professor Bertie Loots also said the three had not yet repaid a cent. The auditor general wants about R200 000 from them all.
Matebane said: “As far as I am concerned the matter is settled. I don’t owe the IBA any money. This was all the result of administrative problems in the finance department,which of course I regret. We have dealt with the issue of the credit cards, I don’t want to resurrect it time and time again. Is this news because nothing is happening at Christmas?”
Shope-Mafole, with powerful African National Congress connections, and who was an activist in exile, was considered almost as powerful as the co-chairs during her tenure at the IBA. She would say nothing this week. She said as an adviser to Naidoo she was unable to talk to the press.
Newspaper reports last month said that Shope-Mafole was nominated by the ANC Youth League for a position on the ANC’s highest body, its national executive committee.
Williams said independent forensic auditors hired to sort out the mess left by the previous administration had sent out final letters of demand to the three former councillors. “If we hear nothing the law will take its course,” he said.
The three were accused of profligate behaviour, upgrading air tickets, insisting on the most expensive hotel accommodation, charging groceries and private school fees to their credit card which attracted devastating publicity for the IBA.
“The lack of financial systems, both accounting and information was outrageous,” Williams said this week.