Parliament – For close to four hours, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi was forced to endure the burning questions of those investigating the rot in the management of the SABC.
But even as she stood accused of either ignoring or assisting in the decline of the public broadcaster, Muthambi was firm in her denial of any wrongdoing.
While under oath, she also made known her continued, staunch support of the deeply criticised, now-former head of the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, and claimed she had only read about his reported R11million bonus in the newspapers.
Muthambi received the grilling on Wednesday from Parliament’s ad hoc committee members investigating the fitness of the SABC board.
Armed with pocket-book sized copies of the Companies Act and the Broadcasting Act, Muthambi came prepared and in her address to the committee concentrated on the legal responsibilities afforded her as a means to explain her actions.
Muthambi took the opportunity to hit back at her detractors in her response to allegations levelled against her, ranging from interference in the editorial policy, to the day to day operations at the broadcaster and having to explain the kind of relationship she had with Motsoeneng and the Gupta family.
In her testimony Muthambi:
* said she had never interfered with the editorial policy;
* rejected claims by SABC journalists that there was a censorship clause in the newly amended editorial policy;
* claimed none of the board members complained about Motsoeneng even after he was described as being a law unto himself at the broadcaster; and,
* said if it were it up to her, she would have asked the board’s only remaining non- executive member, Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe, to resign.
Muthambi said when she was appointed minister in 2014, she inherited a dysfunctional board and on her first meeting with them in July that year, she only attempted to clarify the way forward with how best to address issues – including the public protector’s report on Motsoeneng.
Muthambi said the decision to permanently appoint Motsoeneng as COO was correct despite the findings of the public protector. “At that time that was the correct decision The advice we had was that the remedial action was not binding,” she said. “The governance failures at the SABC should be a shared responsibility but I am not exonerating myself.”
She told the committee the decision to amend the company memorandum of incorporation was to address the many mistakes in it, not to grab power and hand it over to Motsoeneng as has been alleged.
“On the issue of why did I not persuade (Maguvhe) to resign, it was because this matter was already before Parliament. If it was under my control I would have urged him to do so ages ago.”
Earlier in the day, before proceedings got under way, chairman of the committee, Vincent Smith, reacted angrily upon hearing that SABC journalists who had came before the committee had been threatened.
Smith said he received word that threatening messages had been sent to the journalists but did not say who the text messages were sent to.
A text message that was forwarded to UDM MP, Nqaboyomzi Kwankwa, by a journalist, read: “Traitors, protecting your white friends in Parliament who started this, telling lies about your comrades. You are warned; we don’t kill blacks but sit and watch the blood flow.”
Smith called threats or acts of intimidation made to SABC journalists and any witness who appeared before the committee an insult to Parliament.