Axed SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu is still looking for reinstatement — but the signs are that neither the new acting SABC board nor the politicians want him back.
This week it emerged that the cash-strapped broadcaster has filed a motion opposing Mpofu’s latest Labour Court plea for reinstatement.
In addition, ANC insiders told the Mail & Guardian that Mpofu’s name was not among those being ”bandied around” in Luthuli House, which is looking to stabilise the SABC’s finances by appointing a chief executive with a strong commercial background.
Said one: ”If he is reinstated by the courts, the interim board will have to negotiate a huge settlement with him. Or he might lobby for redeployment within the ANC.”
Mpofu was fired by the previous SABC board, now dissolved by Parliament. If the corporation had not filed papers opposing his application within 10 days, a default judgment could have led to his reinstatement.
Sources said Mpofu tried to negotiate a R16-million settlement as part of his exit strategy after clashing with the previous board, but this was ”laughed off”. He was eventually offered close to R7-million as a payout for the balance of his contract, which ends next August.
Mpofu told the M&G he rejected the payout. ”I have placed it in a separate account and told the SABC to take the money back.”
He said that the dissolved SABC board and its former chairperson, Khanyi Mkhonza, could not oppose his application, because that board no longer exists. It spent nearly R15-million in legal fees in sacking him.
Mpofu said his reinstatement plea was based on the unlawful termination of his contract. No date has been set yet for the hearing. The broadcaster’s executives have backed him from the outset and want him reinstated, he claimed.
Mpofu has increasingly been seen as a backer of Jacob Zuma since the ANC’s Polokwane conference. A lawyer and black empowerment player known for his trademark green ties and shirts, Mpofu came under the spotlight at the time of his appointment in 2005 for his numerous outside business interests.
He said he is now a director only of Deutsche Securities SA and that he had a ”small shareholding” in the Elephant Consortium, which secured a 6.7% stake in Telkom.
Mpofu’s original suspension, in May last year, was overturned by the Gauteng High Court because procedure was not followed. But in June last year he was suspended again in a move upheld by the high court and the Supreme Court of Appeal. His contract was terminated in January this year.
Mpofu clashed with the board over his sacking of SABC news head Snuki Zikalala, allegedly for leaking internal documents, and over numerous other issues, including the loss of the broadcasting rights for Premier Soccer League games.
ANC officials said many people could not forgive him for ”what he did to Nelson Mandela”. Mpofu first came to public attention in the early 1990s as the alleged lover of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela while serving as her deputy in the ANC’s social welfare department. Although both denied the affair, Nelson Mandela later cited his wife’s ”brazen infidelity” in divorce proceedings against her.
In May 1992 the ANC sacked Mpofu and Madikizela-Mandela amid reports that the party was investigating fraud charges against them. An ANC document leaked to the press said Madikizela-Mandela was accused of using ”ANC money to live it up with her alleged lover, lawyer Dali Mpofu”.
Mpofu instituted proceedings for wrongful dismissal, but did not pursue the case. ”I don’t want to comment on these things,” he said this week. ”These are old claims.”