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I can exclusively reveal that the entire SABC in Auckland Park is absolutely abuzz about the brand-new power struggle and tug-of-war power play going on at management and SABC board level. Today's internal power struggle drama comes after the venerable public broadcaster has once again been plunged into an epic scandal today and went into crisis mode at highest level to try and stem the unmitigated public disaster that has once again made the SABC a public laughing stock.
SABC employees are chattering wildly since daybreak about the way that Solly Mokoetle, the SABC's group CEO, has apparently unilaterally (with or without the approval of the SABC board's charmain dr. Ben Ngubane) appointed Phil Molefe as the SABC's head of news and current affairs. The only problem? It's not Solly Mokoetle (and/or dr. Ben Ngubane's) appointment to make, but that of the full SABC board who are all completely clueless about the appointment of Phil Molefe as the new head of news!
''Rome is once again burning,'' an SABC insider tells me. The insider is one of the countless SABC employees I've been talking to non-stop all morning. SABC workers in various divisions within the massive broadcasting corporation's corridors at the Auckland Park head office are flabbergasted (some are yawning), while most are once again shaking their heads at the power games being played out in a public spectacle above their heads.
And how is this for another shocker! A longtime worker at the SABC's TV news division tells me ''word came right from the top that we're absolutely not allowed to report on any of this. We're not to use the name of Phil Molefe until we hear otherwise in any stories.'' Several SABC insiders echoed the sentiment of another longtime worker who told me ''there's obviously a brand-new power struggle going on within the upper echelons of the SABC. Its now clear that the new SABC board is being completely sidelined with Solly Mokoetle who seems to now only be taking orders directly from Ngubane. Solly seems to basically be giving the middle finger to the SABC board.''
I've asked very early this morning for comment from the SABC, who is once again in deafening silence mode about the whole fiasco.
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