Lawyers for suspended South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) boss Dali Mpofu began the process of challenging the board meeting that led to his suspension, in papers filed at the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.
His lawyer, Sandile July, said the first part of the application was to ask the court to declare the meeting as irregular, arguing that this was because Mpofu and two other board members were asked to leave the meeting and wait outside.
July said they would argue that the failure to include him in the meeting made it null and void and constituted a ”compliance issue”.
”He is a member of the board and is entitled to be part of the deliberations,” July said. ”The removal from the meeting makes the conduct of that meeting irregular,” he said they would argue.
July said that by excluding Mpofu and the two others on the grounds that they were his juniors, they reduced the number of people voting at the meeting.
Mpofu’s legal team would argue that the SABC board’s decisions are administrative, and fall under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) in terms of the Constitution, and can be reviewed.
If the court could not make the order setting aside the meeting, the second part of their application would be an application for an interim order for the ”suspension of his suspension” while making the PAJA application.
They would also apply to President Thabo Mbeki, or to Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, as the SABC’s sole shareholder, for the removal of the board.
”I will seek to compel the president and the minister of communications to act,” Mpofu said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, senior SABC managers asked Mbeki in a letter to remove the board by Friday.
Mpofu was suspended last Thursday.
He has previously been suspended and successfully challenged his suspension in the Johannesburg High Court.
Mpofu was first suspended on May 7, a day after he suspended his news chief, Snuki Zikalala, who was accused of leaking a memorandum on Mpofu’s alleged bad management of the SABC.
A board spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. — Sapa