The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board said it disagreed with a Johannesburg High Court ruling on Monday, which set aside the suspension of CEO Dali Mpofu and criticised the conduct of the public broadcaster’s chairperson.
Judge Moroa Tsoka said the entire matter was handled badly by board chairperson Khanyi Mkhonza, saying her behaviour ”falls short of a director who should act independently”.
But Mkhonza issued a statement shortly after the ruling, saying: ”While the board acknowledges that advocate Mpofu has every right to pursue all legal avenues available to him to challenge his suspension, we, however, remain convinced that our action against him is legitimate and justified.
”We will therefore carefully study the high court judgement and the reasons given by the judge before issuing a comprehensive statement on our planned course of action in response to the judgment.”
Tsoka ruled that Mpofu should be reinstated because ”the meeting at which the decision was taken to suspend [him] was unlawful” and did not follow the correct legal procedures.
The judge said it appeared that a ”deliberate decision” was taken to exclude Mpofu and two other executive directors from the SABC board meeting where his suspension was decided on.
He said the exclusion ”robbed Mpofu of the right to participate fully” in this meeting.
Outside the court, Mpofu held out an olive branch to the SABC board.
”There is a board meeting that I am attending this afternoon [Monday] … I will sit down and try and resolve the issues amicably. I hope my hand of friendship will be welcomed,” said Mpofu, dressed in a black suit and green tie and flanked by his wife, Mpumi.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said he was not sure what time the meeting would take place, but he expected it to be about 4pm.
Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party (SACP) issued a statement calling on the board to resign.
”This board is incapable of leading the SABC and is also pursuing a factionalist and divisive agenda. We reiterate our call to the board members to resign,” said SACP spokesperson Malesela Maleka.
The Media Workers’ Association of South Africa said the ruling gave ”more grounds for a motion of no confidence in the board”. It called on President Thabo Mbeki to dissolve the board and replace it with a ”more credible and representative board”.
Tsoka criticised the chain of events leading up to Mpofu’s suspension on May 7.
At a meeting as early as April 4, Mkhonza did not raise her concerns about Mpofu’s conduct as CEO with him, yet on the same day she wrote a memorandum on ”concerns” about Mpofu’s management of the public broadcaster.
This included him losing important sports broadcasting contracts, the late presentation of the SABC budget and his disregard of board directions on the restructuring of SAfm.
At a communications portfolio meeting a few days later, she said the memorandum needed to be refined, but did not fix the inaccuracies in the memorandum she handed over to Mpofu.
It became clear from court papers that Mpofu’s decision to suspend his news chief, Snuki Zikalala, prompted the board to act against the CEO.
Mpofu suspended Zikalala because he said the news chief had leaked the memorandum to the Sunday Times.
The board argued in court that Mpofu did not have the authority to suspend Zikalala and that the latter’s suspension was unlawful.
Media reports later suggested that the board had planned to suspend Mpofu and appoint Zikalala in his position, and that this was the real reason why Mpofu suspended Zikalala.
The internal politics at the public broadcaster have intensified since the election of new African National Congress leaders at Polokwane in December, with management and board members aligned to different factions within the ruling party.
The judge ordered that the SABC foot the legal bill for both sides. — Sapa