Pretoria - The appointment of SABC acting chief operations officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng was irregular, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has found.
This emerged from a report, titled “When governance and ethics fail”, she released in Pretoria on Monday.
Her investigation touched on allegations around the appointment and a crooked salary progression.
“The allegation that Mr Motsoeneng's salary progression was irregular is substantiated in that he received salary appraisals three times in one year as alleged, hiking his salary as executive manager (for) stakeholder relations from R1.5 million to R2.4m.
“His salary progression as the acting COO concomitantly rose irregularly from R122 961 to R211 172 (63 percent increase) in 12
months and was in violation of the SABC personnel regulations and constitutes improper conduct and maladministration,” she said.
Complaints against Motsoeneng were raised with Madonsela by former SABC staff - including former chief operations officer Charlotte Mampane and ex-SABC senior executive Phunelele Ntombela-Nzimande.
Motsoeneng was also investigated for fraudulently misrepresenting his qualifications to the SABC, including that he had passed matric when he applied for employment.
Madonsela said allegations that Motsoeneng committed fraud by stating in his application form that he had completed matric at Metsimantsho High School in QwaQwa were also substantiated.
“By his own admission, Mr Motsoeneng stated in his application form that he had passed matric, filled in made-up symbols in the same application form, and promised to supply a matric certificate to confirm his qualifications when he knew he did not have the promised certificate, (this) was admitted by him during an interview,” said Madonsela.
“Mr Motsoeneng would have never been appointed in 1995 had he not lied about his qualification and ... he repeated that lie in 2003 when he applied for the post of executive producer (of) current affairs to which he accordingly should have never been appointed.” - Sapa