Ex-SABC interim board fights back, wants to sue SIU

The former SABC interim board members are intent on clearing their names and will file a lawsuit against the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), former board deputy chairperson Mathatha Tsedu says.

The SIU’s damning report was flawed and used strong words to describe members of the interim board that served the public broadcaster for six months in 2017, Tsedu said. But the legal action they planned to take would “not be vindictive”.

“All we want at this stage is to clear our names,” he said.

Spelling out the implications of being called “a delinquent”, lawyer Tebogo Malatji who represents Tsedu, SABC board former chairperson Khanyisile Kweyama, former board members Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, Krish Naidoo and John Mattison, said the consequences were dire.

“It means you cannot be trusted or hold a position as a director in a public or private entity.

“The recommendation by the SIU for criminal action against former interim board members is quite startling and flawed.

“Before you describe directors or board members as delinquents, you must have proof they abused their positions for personal gain. It should also be shown that they displayed gross negligence that inflicted harm on the company.

“The report has to be reviewed and set aside,” added Malatji.

In its report, the SIU found the decision by the SABC interim board to award the R185 million security tender two years ago to the Mafoko Security was “irregular”.

The former interim board said being implicated in wrongdoing was “surprising” when the SIU had not taken on 15 cases of suspected fraudulent transactions during Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s tenure as SABC chief operating officer.

“I am not aware of those implicated being criminally investigated by the SIU,” said Kweyama. “We came in to clean up the SABC and we are still committed to rooting out corruption.”

Forensic report ‘flawed’

The SABC’s former interim board, which served for six months in 2017, yesterday described the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) findings against them as “flawed” and resolved to take the report on review.

The SIU referred to the former board as as “delinquents” for having “irregularly” awarded a R185 million security tender to Mafoko Security two years ago.

The report said Mafoko won the tender despite being ranked second in the bidding process, and that the interim board overruled its own supply chain processes and failed to act in the SABC’s best interests.

The former members said the decision to appoint Mafoko was “in the best interests of the SABC” and that “no financial losses were suffered by it due to the decision”.

Kweyama added: “By the time the interim board came in, the bid execution committee had already been constituted and had processed the security tender recommending Mjayeli be appointed. Mjayeli scored 99% and Mafoko 98.87%. Mjayeli’s tender was for R183 million over five years and Mafoko’s was R185 million for the same period.

“We discovered the Mjayeli tender had been excluded twice before for failing to meet bid requirements. Immediately prior to the board meeting to deliberate on the tender, a staff member had approached me with information alleging manipulation of the tender process to favour Mjayeli.”

Kweyama said the whistleblower claimed that:

• Monies were paid to SABC executives to award the contract to Mjayeli.
• The tender process was cancelled several times to ensure Mjayeli scored highest.
• There was a security breach of the safe housing tender documents because of the absence of a supply chain manager.

She added that SABC legal services head had said the board was required to make a decision if it had legitimate reasons to do so.

The interim board referred its investigation on the whistleblower allegations to the SIU, which indicated the tender process should have been cancelled.

She said they were required by law to “take urgent steps to safeguard the premises, vehicles and staff”.

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