Johannesburg - Broadcaster e.tv's chief operating officer Bronwyn Keene-Young has resigned, her employer said on Wednesday.
“I can confirm she has resigned,” spokesman Vasili Vaas said.
Neither Keene-Young, nor Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI), which has a 63 percent stake in e.tv, were immediately available for comment.
Keene-Young's resignation follows that of chief executive of e.tv and eNCA, Marcel Golding, who announced his resignation to staff on Monday. Keene-Young is married to Golding.
eNCA reported that Golding told staff he had no choice but to resign, but added the fight was not over yet.
Golding was suspended last week as executive chairman of HCI.
Golding appealed against his suspension in the Labour Court and lost the application on Monday morning.
On Thursday, HCI said it was suspending Golding pending a disciplinary inquiry into allegations of gross misconduct.
According to eNCA, HCI accused Golding of an unauthorised share trade, saying he did not have board approval to acquire shares worth R24 million in technology company Ellies.
Golding reportedly claimed he was being ousted in a battle for control of e.tv's editorial independence.
HCI denied this, saying the issue was the unauthorised share trade. HCI director Barbara Hogan resigned at the same time, according to the report.
In Hogan's resignation letter, published online on Tuesday, the former minister states she could not associate herself with “certain recent developments within the HCI group concerning the chair, Marcel Golding.
“I am uneasy with the proposition that the discontent with Marcel’s leadership can solely be attributed to the alleged unauthorised trading in Ellies' shares,” Hogan said.
“Whilst the latter requires investigation, I am mindful of the briefing that Yunis Shaik gave me when he claimed that Sactwu, a significant shareholder in HCI, had lost patience with the editorial practices of e.tv, citing the failure to give prominent coverage to Minister Ebrahim Patel’s economic pronouncements, as an instance of such dissatisfaction.”
Shaik is an HCI board member.
The fact that the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) later refused to approve any restructuring proposals which would have separated the media interests of the company from HCI, reinforced Hogan's unease.
“I am appalled at the unprofessional way in which the process to inquire into the Ellies trading matter has unfolded,” said Hogan.
It also transpired that Remgro, a substantial shareholder in Sabido, a subsidiary of HCI that wholly owns e.tv, was not kept informed of developments.
“I fail to understand why this was not done and such failure must surely be grossly negligent” Hogan said.
“I fail also to understand why no immediate plan was put into place regarding management arrangements at Sabido with the hasty suspension of its chief executive.
“That the board was asked a little while thereafter to formally ratify all of these actions, with no formal written report or documentation in support thereof, is even more unacceptable.”
This was even though the chair of the sub-committee had previously promised that such a report would be made available in due course.
“At all times during this process, the HCI board has never been provided with a formal report concerning these matters,” Hogan said.
“The matter is now very much in the public domain and the HCI board has still not received a formal report and the value of the company has declined.”
Under these circumstances, Hogan felt it was incumbent upon her to resign. - Sapa