The SABC's position for chief operating officer (COO) currently filled by Hlaudi Motsoeneng will be advertised on Sunday while the disciplinary hearing for the SABC's suspended chief financial officer Gugu Duda will be taking place later this month.
Hlaudi Motsoeneng has been appointed in the position as chief operating officer in a temporary acting capacity although he doesn't have matric and never passed Grade 12. The disciplinary hearing for the SABC's suspended chief financial officer Gugu Duda will be taking place in February with five days set aside for the hearing.
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At a hastily-arranged press conference on Friday afternoon at the SABC's Auckland Park headquarters, the SABC's deputy chairperson Thami Ka Plaatjie said that the position of chief operating officer (COO) will be advertised on Sunday after a drawn-out legal battle with the former SABC executive Mvuzo Mbebe had now been settled.
Mvuzo Mbebe took the SABC board to court and applied for an interdict at the South Gauteng High Court after he was recommended for the position of chief operating officer in July 2007 by the then SABC chairperson Eddie Funde, but never got the job.
Meanwhile Gugu Duda's disciplinary hearing will be taking place over the course of a whole week in February, she was immediately suspended in September 2012 because of alleged irregular procurement actions allegedly relating to sponsorship deals.
Tian Olivier is currently the acting chief financial officer of the SABC.
Thami Ka Plaatjie said at the press conference that the SABC which got close to the cliff of financial collapse in 2009 and was granted a government bailout of R1,47 billion in the form of a government guaranteed loan from Nedbank, is not in a sound financial position yet.
Thami Ka Plaatjie said that the SABC failed to meet all of the conditions of the government guarantee in exchange for the billion rand bailout.
"We must not fool ourselves. This doesn't mean that we've met all the conditions of the government guarantee," said Thami Ka Plaatjie.
The SABC announced that it had payed back another R416 million of the government bailout of R1,47 billion the struggling broadcaster received in 2009. The SABC now still owes R230 million on the government guaranteed loan to Nedbank.
