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Acting Transnet Freight Rail chief executive Tau Morwe. Picture Mxolisi madela/BR

A fresh row has erupted at the SABC over the appointment of the broadcaster’s group chief executive officer, this time pitting board chairman Ben Ngubane against board member Cawe Mahlati.

The Sunday Independent, Weekend Argus’s sister paper, has learnt from highly placed sources that Mahlati urged Ngubane at a board meeting last month to come clean on a letter Communications Minister Roy Padayachie wrote to the board, demanding to know why Tau Morwe, the chief executive officer of Transnet’s National Ports Authority, was recommended for the SABC top post when in fact “he did not have any broadcasting experience”.

Instead of informing all board members about the minister’s letter, Ngubane handed to Padayachie all the documents that came from Spencer Steward, a recruitment agency that interviewed, among others, Morwe and Joe Mjwara - a director at Business Connexion who has in the past worked for the communications department as a deputy director-general - for the job.

At that meeting, the sources said, Mahlati demanded to know why board members were not told about the letter.

“Board members said they had not seen the letter and accused Ngubane of acting in bad faith. Ngubane hit back and said ‘I got the right to respond to the minister without calling a meeting of the other members of the board,’” the source said.

Yesterday, Ngubane said Padayachie wanted “CVs, our assessment of the candidate and the criteria we used”. “What was I supposed to do? I thought the best was to give the minister all the information so that he makes up his mind.”

The board would make its “input in whatever the minister wants and that process has not been concluded”, he said.

Mahlati was not available for comment yesterday.

Morwe, who came out tops during the interviews, was the board’s preferred candidate for the post. However, a board member said at the time, the ANC was “unhappy” about the selection process as it and Padayachie wanted Mjwara to be appointed. - Sunday Argus