SABC's long walk to ‘financial justice'

Insiders and industry watchers told Bizcommunity.com yesterday, Sunday 18 October 2009, that the suspension last week by the interim board of four top executives is the beginning of a long, complex but serious process to uncover and ‘punish' the masterminds behind the government-controlled public broadcaster's financial meltdown.

CFO Robin Nicholson, group executive of content enterprises Mvuzo Mbebe, head of audience services Anton Heunis and head of group procurement Mabela Satekge have been suspended pending the outcome of internal disciplinary processes arising from investigations conducted by the auditor general and ‘other parties'.

Rot exacerbated

An SABC source told Bizcommunity.com: “The board must be commended for taking such decisive action. I am happy that Robin has finally been taken to task. He was the only survivor of Matlare-Solly era and Eddie Fundi (former board chair) made him very powerful... Robin was responsible for budgeting and he controlled the SABC's purse, meaning he solely decided where the money went.”

The source continued: “As for Mvuso, he had at least eight people working under him who all went overseas to buy content. Just imagine how much that was costing the SABC in terms of accommodation, transport and other expenses. The guy from procurement is new and has been there for about two years… Surely he didn't follow proper procedures?

“The SABC's rot was exacerbated when Dali was appointed by Eddie Fundi. Dali's lack of broadcasting knowledge meant that he couldn't manage his managers and this led to the lack of control whereby everyone did as he or she pleased.”

Setting an example

Save our SABC Coalition spokesperson Kate Skinner said: “This is the culmination of the Auditor General's report, the recommendations of which the interim board was tasked to implement.

“This sets an example and constitutes the first step in a long process of starting to restore the public broadcaster's integrity. SOS will certainly be monitoring the process.

“We, as the general public, want to see action following-on from the report. I think it is good that we are starting at the top and starting with these four, but others in due course need to be investigated.”

Looters and thieves

Lesley Cowling, senior lecturer at Wits University's School of Journalism, said: “It is welcome to see that the SABC board is taking the auditor-general's report seriously, and following it up with a proper investigation.

“The report showed that many people had taken advantage of inadequate management to loot the broadcaster, in effect, stealing from licence payers, who are the public and advertisers, and who are only there because of the viewers.

“This partly led to the financial crisis the broadcaster is in, and to the destruction of a whole industry - the makers of television programmes. Many people are now out of work, and many businesses have shut down. Whoever was responsible, whether through corruption or mismanagement, should face penalties,” she added.

However, past experiences show that investigating officials working for government-controlled institutions have often proved to be futile, costly and time-consuming.

Investigations need to be swift

Skinner warned: “I think that the interim board does need to proceed very carefully. The last permanent board tied itself up in knots with Dali by not following due process. This time round the SABC cannot afford to do that.

“These investigations should take place quickly by following impeccable due process and avoid at all possible costs a situation where these issues get tied up in court and that people are eventually not charged even though they are guilty.

“Also, systems and clear policies need to be put in place going forward so that this never happens again. One of the important suggestions is to look into the business interests of SABC staff and management.

“We need to develop a culture of responsibility in the SABC. Also, there need for consequences for corrupt actions. We strongly hope that the wrong-doers will be convicted. As stated before we will be carefully monitoring the process as it proceeds.”