A female SABC worker has laid a charge of assault at the South African Police Service and at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) against the SABC's head of news Jimi Matthews.
The woman, in charge of the SABC's outside broadcasting staff, who laid the charge at Cape Town Central Police Station, alleges that she was physically assaulted as well as verbally and psychologically attacked by Jimi Matthews during the SABC's coverage of president Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address on 12 February.
The CCMA complaints alleges that the woman, "was victimised, harassed and assaulted verbally, physically and psychologically by a male executive manager following a technical glitch beyond her control or that of the crew she supervised".
She was allegedly threatened "with more deliberate and purposeful violence".
Tuwani Gumani, the general secretary of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (Mwasa) asked the SABC's famously matricless chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the SABC's general executive of human capital services, Jabulani Mabaso, to suspend Jimi Matthews in a letter TV with Thinus has seen.
Tuwani Gumani wrote to the SABC executives, saying that "Jimi Matthews stands accused of alleged impropriety by a junior employee and female colleague he had allegedly deemed irresistably fit to accost, assault and threaten, verbally and otherwise during the fracas surrounding the State of the Nation Address of 12 February 2015."
"Whereas the alleged incidences happened during working hours, on SABC premises and in the full view of other employees, there has been no action on the part of the SABC to address the violation and transgression of its own and national policies regarding improper interpersonal conduct on the part of the head of SABC News."
Tuwani Gumani asked the SABC to "formally caution and to suspend Jimi Matthews with immediate effect".
The SABC didn't respond to a media enquiry seeking comment on the matter and asking whether Jimi Matthews has been suspended.
