‘Mpofu's removal may bring stability to SABC'

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) director William Bird said he was not surprised by the news as the board has been pretty clear that it wanted him to go.

“Depending on the details if it was amicable, it may bring a little more stability given the uncertainty of 2008. Given that we are entering an election period, it will be key that a sense of stability is created,” he said.

Ambiguous

The board on Friday, 23 January 2009, issued an ambiguous one-sentence statement, announcing its decision to fire Mpofu without elaborating.

But, as the real picture of the dismissal began to emerge, lobby groups and industry watchers lashed out at the board for not providing enough information on the case and acting like a bunch of autocratic leaders.

On Saturday, The Citizen quoted Mpofu as saying that he was not part of the meeting where the decision to ‘part ways' was taken, adding that he had instructed his lawyers to look into the matter.

In a rare support to her former enemy, Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) director Jane Duncan slammed the board for denying Mpofu a disciplinary hearing in spite of having been charged.

Two years ago, Mpofu - a former Mbeki loyalist who has allegedly crossed over to the Zuma camp - branded the FXI a bunch of right-wingers during the Mbeki documentary saga.

“Deserved a proper determination”

“The public deserved a proper determination of who was right and who was wrong, and this would have been possible only through a hearing,” Duncan told Bizcommunity.com.

“If incompatibility was the reason for termination, then this is a very vague reason indeed and difficult to prove, especially given that there were much more serious charges levelled against him,” she added.

Bird said that it was disappointing that the communication was so brief. “Given that one of the core critiques of the crises at SABC focused on gaps of communication as well as insufficient communication, and given the various crises that the broadcaster has been embroiled in, it would have been positive if more of an explanation was provided.”

Another round of court battles

Some observers now fear that the ill-advised decision to dump Mpofu might open another round of court battles, worsening the corporation's dire financial situation. Kate Skinner, spokeswoman for the Save our SABC Coalition, said: “We are worried to hear that Dali did not have a hearing.

“We fear that this might throw the SABC into another round of legal action. All the parties need to be operating with the public interest at heart.”

Mpofu, suspended thrice since May 2008 and reinstated once by the Joburg High Court, has vowed to take the public broadcaster to court - again - to fight what he called the board's ‘unilateral' and ‘misleading' decision to dismiss him.

On Sunday, he declined to comment further when approached by Bizcommunity.com to provide more details.

The Sunday Independent reported yesterday that the SABC is said to be surviving on a R500 million Absa overdraft and struggling to pay its debts.

Some say the dismissal might have something to do with the controversial Broadcasting Amendment Bill, which this week could be signed into law by President Kgalema Motlanthe, thus culminating to the hasty removal of the disgraced board.

“Less than confident”

Duncan said, “The fact that the SABC did not allow the matter to go to a hearing suggests that they were less than confident of their case, and were in fact in a rush to get rid of him, perhaps to preempt their own possible demise as a board. Perhaps they feared what would be exposed in a hearing.”

Mpofu told The Sunday Independent: “They want to make it as if I am party to the agreement, when I was not. Clearly, they are in a rush to do this before they are kicked out.”

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago refused to comment, referring all queries to Qunta, whose cellphone was off the whole weekend.

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