Aguma not off the hook yet, says Outa

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says former SABC acting chief executive James Aguma is not off the hook as his resignation from the broadcaster will not be his “get out of jail free card”.

Aguma is being fingered for the financial mess the public broadcaster finds itself in, including a host of irregular contracts and wasteful and irregular expenditure.

Besides Outa, several others – including parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, the Democratic Alliance, and the SABC interim board – have been calling for Aguma to be prosecuted.

Outa’s portfolio director for special projects Dominique Msibi yesterday said Aguma was still to face the music pertaining to charges that the organisation had laid against him in late 2016. The charges are being investigated by the Hawks.

Outa also wants Aguma to be struck off the roll by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants because of his professional misconduct at SABC.

They want the chartered accounting regulatory body to not only remove his name from their membership list, but to also disqualify him from applying for membership because “we need credible individuals working as CAs”.

“The days of officials being pardoned after a mere resignation is over. The damage caused within the SABC all occurred under Aguma’s supervision.

“Being an executive of a state-owned entity comes with a lot of responsibility. There is no escaping this and we will follow through on our cases against him,” Msibi said.

Even the interim SABC board is baying for Aguma’s blood and wants him criminally charged, a move Outa supports.

This week, interim board chairperson Khanyisile Kweyama said Aguma would still be prosecuted after the current forensic investigation into irregular and wasteful expenditure at the corporation.

The Special Investigating Unit is probing several contracts that were entered into during Aguma’s tenure.

Aguma’s resignation this week was part of an agreement between his lawyers and SABC where it was agreed that the disciplinary hearing he was facing would be set aside.

He faced 10 charges, including the breaching of his fiduciary duties and dishonesty.