Cape Town - SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng on Thursday signalled that he would immediately appeal a Western Cape High Court interim order that he be suspended from his post.
His lawyer, Zola Majavu, said this meant Motsoeneng, could be back at work before the weekend.
In the latest round in the legal battle between Motsoeneng and the Democratic Alliance (DA), Judge Ashton Schippers granted an application by the opposition party that Motsoeneng be suspended pending the outcome of his appeal against the court’s initial judgment on October 24 last year.
At that time, Schippers held that the SABC implement the findings of a report by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela who called for Motsoeneng to be suspended and subjected to an internal disciplinary process.
That ruling caused a stir because of the judge’s comments that the Public Protector’s reports did not have the status of court rulings, though organs of state had to implement them unless they could give cogent reasons for not doing so.
The DA welcomed Thursday’s outcome as a victory for the party’s belief that the Public Protector’s rulings have binding force.
“We are very satisfied. This outcome goes to the heart of the enforcibility of the remedial action ordered by the Public Protector,” said James Selfe, the chairman of the DA’s federal executive.
However, Selfe conceded that given Motsoeneng’s appeal, that question would arise again before the Supreme Court of Appeal.
“It may very well do that but at least in the interim, remedial action order by the Public Protector would have to be enforced.”
He said should Motsoeneng flout Schippers’s ruling and return to work, he would be in contempt of court.
But Majavu said his client had an automatic right of appeal against the interim order and as soon as it was lodged, his suspension would fall away pending the outcome.
“We will immediately file papers to appeal. It is not going to take us long. So let’s say if we are able to lodge the affidavits today, the result will be that he will be able to report to work tomorrow.”
In the meanwhile, Motsoeneng would stay away from his office so as not to violate Judge Schippers’s order, he added.
Selfe questioned Majavu’s assertion that there was an automatic right to appeal, and that Motsoeneng was unlikely to miss more than a day’s work.
“It took Judge Schippers four months to deliver this finding and it is 48 pages long. I am not so sure that he is going to agree to an appeal. If he does not they will have to petition the SCA and that could take time, and in the meanwhile he cannot return to work.”
Schippers had awarded costs in the DA’s favour.
Asked how he felt about developments, Motsoeneng said: “I enjoy life so there should be no problem. I will respect the findings, but things carry on.”
Majave added that should they lose in the SCA, the SABC and Motsoeneng would take the matter to the Constitutional Court. The DA has in the past said it could foresee such a possibility and was also prepared to take the matter to the highest court in the land to secure clarity on the status of the Public Protector’s findings.
Madonsela had found that Motsoeneng had misled the SABC about his lack of a matric certificate and that his sudden salary increase fom R1.5-million to R2.4-million in a single year as well as some of his staff appointments merited an internal probe.
Schippers has given the SABC 60 days to conclude an investigation.
Madonsela published her findings in February last year while Motsoeneng was still acting COO, but Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has in the meanwhile confirmed his appointment.
ANA