There are no divisions in the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board over the appointment of new group CEO Solly Mokoetle, chairperson Dr Ben Ngubane said in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
“The factual situation is that all the non-executive board members accepted the new group CEO … I’m not in a position to say who spoke to the Sunday Times about divisions and we are not investigating that,” he told a press briefing during the handover from the interim to the permanent board in Auckland Park.
He said both boards had confidence in Mokoetle, who took up a five-year contract on January 1.
The new board was not investigating Mokoetle.
He reportedly left the state broadcaster in a huff as chief operations officer following a damning audit report compiled by Gobodo Forensic and Investigative Accounting in 2005. According to a Sunday Times report, he had badly failed in his corporate-governance duties.
“We have nothing on the table to investigate him … there were two boards before us. They didn’t act on it. We are also not investigating him unless he does something funny,” Ngubane said.
Mokoetle said he was at ease after a “baptism of fire” a week ago when he took over the position. He thanked the interim board for its courage in appointing him, and the new board for having confidence in him to lead and restore the SABC’s professionalism and integrity.
His priorities would be ensuring financial stability and restoring the relationship with advertisers and programme producers.
Former SABC interim board chairperson Irene Charnley said the handover meeting, the first of its kind, was held to ensure transparency and accountability, and to ensure the new board was in a position to immediately continue with the process of turning the SABC around and restoring its integrity.
The interim board’s core focuses were to stabilise the corporation after a severe financial crisis that left the broadcaster with a deficit of just more than R900-million.
“Critical among our achievements was the securing of an additional R200-million budget from government and a government guarantee of R1,4-billion,” said Charnley.
She said that based on the R1,4-billion guarantee secured by the interim board the SABC has now entered into a five-year loan agreement with Nedbank to address liquidity concerns, significantly improving the stabilisation environment.
It also resolved the wage dispute and strikes by organised labour that confronted the corporation when it took over, resolved the impasse with the former group CEO [Dali Mpofu] and was responsible for the appointment of the new CEO.
“The interim board also saved at least R180-million from the original budget through tight monitoring and control of expenditure and implementation of cost-saving measures such as reduction of travel allowances, petrol allowances and leave carried over.”
The handover meeting between the two boards was witnessed by Minister of Communications Siphiwe Nyanda, who said he attended to ensure a smooth transfer.
He thanked the interim board for a sterling performance since its appointment six months ago.
“There was a lot of criticism but three months later there was an acknowledgement of its successes … I felt duty bound to come and thank them for a job well done and welcome the new board.”
Charnley said the new board would commence with the appointment of the corporation’s head of news. — Sapa