by Thinus Ferreira
The former SABC COO Ian Plaatjes is fighting his firing after he was axed in June over a controversial and secretive ad revenue share agreement with an external provider for the SABC+ streaming service.
Ian Plaatjes claims he was let go on fabricated charges by the broadcaster "to get rid of executives like myself".
He now reveals that as SABC COO, he and the former SABC CEO have been involved in in-fighting with Madoda Mxakwe who conducted "numerous unlawful forensic investigations" against him, which led to Plaatjes filing a grievance case against Mxakwe.
Ian Plaatjes and Merlin Naicker, the public broadcaster's former head of video entertainment, were both fired in June this year after they were found guilty in a disciplinary hearing of withholding information about an advertising revenue sharing agreement with Discover Digital that runs SABC+ on the public broadcaster's behalf.
Ian Plaatjes has now taken the SABC to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) over his June dismissal, saying he was fired because of SABC "hidden agendas" to get rid of executives like himself.
Unknown publicly until now, there had been executive in-fighting between the SABC COO and SABC CEO, with Ian Plaatjes who filed grievance charges against former SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe.
Ian Plaatjes now reveals that "The grievance which I had initiated against Madoda Mxakwe in 2023 was never properly finalised or communicated to me" and that his "grievance related to the numerous unlawful forensic investigations that were conducted against me".
"It points to the motivation for the fabricated charges which were brought against only Merlin Naicker and me and which directly resulted in our dismissal."
Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson, told TVwithThinus in response to a media query "The SABC can confirm that this matter is before the CCMA and will allow the CCMA process to take its course and for an appropriate finding to be made under the auspices of the CCMA".
Ian Plaatjes says he has "full confidence that the CCMA process will vindicate my conduct" as SABC COO and will "overturn the findings of the disciplinary hearing and show that charges brought against me were fabricated by the employed, motivated as they were by nefarious objectives".
According to Ian Plaatjes, his CCMA hearing on 12 September will be shown online and will be "an opportunity for the public and the media to get to the truth in the contract between the SABC and Discover Digital, and the actual reasons why the SABC wanted to get rid of executives, including myself".
"Merlin Naicker and I had sought agreement with the SABC on two occasions for the disciplinary hearing to be open to the media, as we have nothing to hide and we believe that it is in the public's interest to have access to the facts of the matter. The SABC opposed our request and the chairperson of the hearing, Prof Takalani Madima subsequently ruled against our request".
Ian Plaatjes says Prof Takalani Madima "accepted the SABC's version and found that I was guilty on one count each of gross dishonestly, failure to act in the best interests of the SABC and of violating the conditions of my suspension by communicating with the media".
"At the heart of this matter, which will now be adjudicated by the CCMA, is whether or not I submitted a business plan regarding SABC+ which did not disclose a 7.5% share of the advertising revenue that would be garnered from the plan, between the SABC and Discover Digital".
Ian Plaatjes says that the costs were "transparent and known to all SABC executive committee members "prior to the approval of the SABC+ business plan on 10 October 2022 and a revised business plan on 7 November 2022 - including Lungile Binza, the SABC's head of technology who is currently the SABC acting COO.
"He was also personally responsible for validating these costs. All the SABC witnesses testified to this in the disciplinary hearing - evidence which was ignored."
He says "The 7.5% cost was also contained to the cost of the digital advert that was replaced and not the total cost of the revenue generated from SABC+."
Ian Plaatjes notes that "For the duration of the Discovery Digital agreement, ending in November 2023, the Castoola software was never used and therefore no costs were incurred and paid to Discover Digital related to the 7.5% clause. The SABC's charges against me are therefore not based on any facts and the reality of what occurred, but a fabricated scenario which never occurred".
Ian Plaatjes says that the SABC's disciplinary hearing against him and Merlin Naicker came "at a time that the public broadcaster is technically bankrupt. The taxpayer cannot foot the bill for the SABC's wasteful decisions with hidden agendas".
Ian Plaatjes reveals "There were numerous forensic investigations conducted against
me. None of these had the SABC board's
approval nor were they conducted by independent forensic auditors".
"Madoda Mxakwe merely instructed Katlego Mpepu [SABC group executive for internal audit] and Fhatuwani Sibanda [then SABC forensic investigations manager] to conduct numerous unjustified forensic
investigations against Merlin Naicker, Reggie Nxumalo [SABC ad sales boss] former and myself".
"These baseless investigations amount to
irregular expenditure as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure."
"My grievance against Madoda Mxakwe
was submitted to the SABC board on 19 May 2023 and was conducted by an external
legal firm on 24 June 2023. However, the
outcome report was never shared with me, despite my numerous requests, including
on the day of my suspension, 7 February 2024."
"This sequence of events clearly
violates the SABC's own HR disciplinary processes and procedures," he notes, adding that "the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing chose to totally ignore this issue".
