As the disciplinary hearing of controversial Central Karoo municipal manager Truman Prince got under way on Wednesday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) Special Assignment team came under fire for refusing to become involved in the proceedings.
The leader of evidence in the hearing, attorney Richard Brown, said this means that two charges contemplated against Prince have had to be abandoned.
He said he needed unedited Special Assignment video material on incidents including a confrontation involving Prince at the Beaufort West police station and, ideally, for the cameraman himself to testify that he took the footage.
This was not the footage from a Special Assignment documentary on child prostitution in which Prince featured, and which was the subject of a separate disciplinary hearing last year.
”They’ve refused, they’ve hidden behind their self-created journalistic privilege on the basis that if they assist us here, they may be forced to testify at other proceedings,” Brown said.
”It’s really poor that they’ve taken that tack … I was very disappointed that they took this stance, as a result of which we cannot proceed with two of the charges we would have liked to have proceeded with.”
He could understand police refusing to participate on the grounds that they might compromise some criminal prosecution, but the role of the media ”needs to be examined”.
Even if no one was willing to testify, Special Assignment could at least have handed over the unedited tape, and there could then have been a debate on its admissibility at the hearing.
”But nothing, nothing. They didn’t even return my calls. That’s how bad it was,” Brown said.
No comment was immediately available from Special Assignment.
Lesego Mncwango, acting spokesperson at the SABC, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday morning that the broadcaster is protecting the interests of the journalist and will only assist the hearing by providing aired footage and not raw footage.
”We’re not going to allow Special Assignment to participate in the Truman hearing,” she said.
Prince has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, one of which relates to the alleged use of R3 000 from a mayoral fund to settle bail for a friend.
Other charges reportedly relate to his use of foul language and a fraudulent subsistence claim.
The hearing, chaired by an independent lawyer, is closed to the public.
The first witnesses on Wednesday were the municipality’s speaker, Elize Visser, and mayor, Doreen Hugo, both seen as allies of Prince.
On Thursday, Brown is expected to lead testimony from a group of Laingsburg waitresses who claim to have been verbally abused by Prince.
Although the hearing was initially expected to last only three days, Brown said on Wednesday night that it would probably sit on Saturday and Sunday, ”pushing through in the hope of finishing on Sunday”.
If it did not finish then, it would be postponed to later in the month.
A former mayor of Beaufort West, Prince hit the headlines early last year when he featured in a Special Assignment documentary on child prostitution that showed him talking to young girls through his car window at night.
He was subsequently charged with public violence after an alleged assault on a Special Assignment team in the town.
He was suspended from his post over the prostitution furore, but reinstated after pleading guilty to ”inappropriate behaviour” in return for a final written warning.
In a disciplinary hearing in June, the African National Congress found him guilty of bringing the party into disrepute and suspended his membership for six months.
The Western Cape department of local government and housing and the special investigation unit are investigating the payment of a R49 000 performance bonus awarded to Prince last year. — Sapa