BEMAWU president Hannes du Buisson told Bizcommunity.com yesterday, Monday, 8 March 2010, that the union expressed concern about O'Neil's new position and raised the issue with SOS Support Public Broadcasting.
The board announced last Friday that O'Neil will provide extended oversight on all sales and marketing activities, as part of the programme to ‘turn' around' and ‘stabilise' the public broadcaster.
Bizcommunity.com understands that the board and CEO Solly Mokoetle initially spoke of ‘secondment'- whatever that means - and only changed their stance to extended oversight after the issue was raised by the union.
An angry Du Buisson, who rejects SABC's statement that O'Neil will not serve directly in the structures, said, “History has taught us that when a person is seconded, they become permanent, sooner or later. This is unethical to use your position on the board to land yourself a lucrative job.”
He explained: “When seconded, it means a board member will get paid, be there on a semi-permanent basis, meaning she will have to sit there physically to run the business, and make financial and operational decisions for which she has to account for to the board, including herself.
“I do not think you get something like extended oversight. As the board you have the duty of oversight. If there is room for extended oversight, it means to me you have not done your oversight properly. If you can, extend it more.
“The other issue is that members of staff do not want her there. She is not popular at all. Previously staff resigned and claimed constructive dismissal because she made life intolerable for them. Samantha Lewis is an example of such a case.”
Furthermore, Du Buisson said - without tangible proof - that O'Neil has been making deals with advertisers to take their money upfront for deals only coming up in the next fiscal year.
“This means the SABC now gets a cash injection, but next term this will reflect as a liability on their books. In other words, they sell airtime upfront and use the money now, and in the next fiscal term, it shows a liability. This has a negative impact on staff as well, because they cannot sell that airtime in the next term, (it's already been sold and paid for by the client) and therefore they cannot earn commission.
“It also has an impact on the next fiscal year's rates, and I doubt if they considered aspects such as inflation, among others. Obviously, they must offer that airtime at a much lower rate to make it attractive for the advertiser. Why else would you spend your money upfront?
“This needs some more investigation but my information is that Clare did exactly that when she was there; hence her so-called success.”
He also said that he has been told by a reliable source that they have done several such upfront payment deals in the past months.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago could not be reached last night for comment.
Watch this space!
