Johannesburg -
President Jacob Zuma will seriously consider the recommendation by Speaker Baleka Mbete to suspend SABC chairwoman Ellen Tshabalala after the latter was found guilty by an inquiry of the communications portfolio committee.
Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said it was important for the president to take the recommendation seriously as it was the parliamentary committee that had recommended her appointment.
Maharaj confirmed yesterday that Mbete had written to the president, asking him to consider suspending Tshabalala.
However, he would not be drawn on when Zuma would announce his decision.
“It is difficult to answer that question as he first has to consider all the facts before him – what the Speaker is recommending – and then decide on the way forward.
“As soon as that has been done he will announce his decision,” said Maharaj.
This follows an inquiry by Parliament’s communications portfolio committee into whether Tshabalala had misrepresented her qualifications when applying for the position of chairwoman of the public broadcaster.
Tshabalala, who last week disputed testimony by Unisa executive director Jan van Wyk that there was no record of her obtaining a degree from the university, might be suspended as soon as Zuma returns from a state visit to Equatorial Guinea.
She has failed on numerous occasions to produce the qualifications, claiming they had been stolen during a burglary at her home.
She has seemingly lost the battle she has fought since allegations surfaced that she did not hold the qualifications she had claimed when applying for the top SABC post.
Van Wyk told the inquiry last week that though Tshabalala had registered for her BComm degree in both 1988 and 1996, she had failed to obtain the qualification. According to Unisa records, she had also registered for a diploma in labour relations in 1995.
During the academic year, she passed two, failed two, and did not write two of the modules. In January 1996, she was allowed to rewrite the two she could not write the previous year. She obtained a score of 13 percent for her human resources module and 35 percent for labour relations. Unisa then wrote to Tshabalala, informing her she had not qualified to redo the course.
The committee found Tshabalala guilty of two counts of misconduct last Wednesday – one for claiming she had obtained the two qualifications on her CV when she applied for the job as SABC chairwoman and the other related to an affidavit she submitted to Parliament stating that her qualifications had been stolen during a burglary at her home.
Tshabalala has accused the committee of deciding her fate before its inquiry was completed. She said the committee requested that Zuma suspend her prior to the decision made last Wednesday.
She argued, through her lawyer Michael Tillney, that the committee’s decision to recommend that she be removed from office was “procedurally unfair”.
Tshabalala added that Unisa had been having problems with its records and computer system, which could not be trusted, and has since refused to resign from the position.
She said she had tried on numerous occasions to get a copy of her qualification from Unisa, but had failed because of its computer problem.
Tshabalala is the second high-profile SABC official exposed for not holding the qualifications they claimed.
SABC acting chief executive Hlaudi Motsoeneng was slammed by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela for having lied about having passed matric when he applied for a job at the SABC. Motsoeneng is the chief operations officer, but is currently the acting chief executive as the incumbent is on leave.
- Sunday Independent