Dali Mpofu intends challenging what he considers his ”unilateral dismissal” as the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) group executive.
”I am definitely going to challenge and fight this,” Mpofu said after the public broadcaster’s board announced its decision to ”part ways” with Mpofu on Friday after a long and contested period of suspension.
”Following an SABC board meeting on January 20 2009, the corporation is announcing that the board has taken a decision to part ways with suspended group chief executive officer Dali Mpofu with immediate effect,” a statement read.
Mpofu said he was given a letter on Thursday informing him briefly of this decision, with an undertaking by the board to follow up with reasons for the decision.
Mpofu said he objected to the term ”part ways”.
Although certain ”overtures” had been made to him through intermediaries, nothing was considered finalised.
”It was a unilateral decision to dismiss me,” he said.
He had handed the matter over to his lawyers.
”My view is to get my job back,” said Mpofu.
This follows an eight-month battle between the board and Mpofu.
He was suspended on May 7 last year, after he suspended news chief Snuki Zikalala.
Zikalala had been accused of leaking confidential documents and an internal memorandum, but the board argued that Mpofu did not have the authority to suspend Zikalala and so suspended Mpofu.
After an independent inquiry, Zikalala was cleared of these accusations and reinstated.
Mpofu’s suspension went before the courts several times, with him being un-suspended and re-suspended in what the Freedom Front Plus believe is part of a fight for political control of the broadcaster.
”This sacking of Mpofu is definitely not the last step in the developing fights for the control of the SABC,” the party’s leader, Pieter Mulder, said.
”In the short-term the Mbeki supporters are busy winning but in the long-run the Zuma supporters will most probably win while South African viewers and listeners are continuously the losers.”
The current SABC board has been mired in controversy over claims that it is pro ousted president Thabo Mbeki, over African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, who is the party’s candidate for the next president of the country.
Mbeki signed off on approval of the board shortly after losing a bid for a third term at the helm of the ANC to Zuma.
Unions and civil society bodies also question the lack of a journalist or a labour voice on the board, and its ability to ensure that the public broadcaster carries out its mandate.
Current president Kgalema Motlanthe has also been accused of dragging his heels on a Bill that would give Parliament the power to sack the board, shifting it from the president.
Zikalala himself has come in for criticism over his historic links to the ruling party, which some observers feel is inappropriate at the public broadcaster. — Sapa